And Then It All Changed
by justaboutamoonlightmile
Summary: NEW CHAPTERS 10/06/19! Rory Scanlon and Ace Merrill made it to their senior year before their paths ever crossed. When the popular princess from the view and the cheap dime store hood's lives become unexpectedly intertwined, they both learn that reputation and perception are far from reality.
1. introduction & disclaimers & such

Story Updated 04-28-2019. Early chapters reworked. Some background & housekeeping...skip to chapter two for beginning of the story.

A few notes…

Story is loose rewrite of my original fic "My Release" written under the name patriotscowgirl.

Story takes place in Maine (i'm an east coast gal, I have more of a context for Maine than Oregon).

Takes the book perspective that Ace is slightly younger during the events of "The Body." This story starts roughly a year following the Ray Brower situation and Ace is 17.

Unlike in both the book & film, this story explores Ace's life after he had to spend a year in Juvie for his retaliation on Chris, Gordie, Vern and Teddy (among a few other things).

The majority of the characters are original, living in Stephen King's fictitious Castle Rock with Ace Merrill (Mr. King's, not mine) and his Cobras (again, Mr. Stephen King's not mine) in the year following the events of the book/film.

Some musical liberties will be taken...just warning you now. I'm inspired by music and have a playlist of modern and vintage tracks that heavily inspired my writing. Finding songs that speak to me for the more musical moments was more important than 100% true to the time musical integrity. Don't worry, Cardi B doesnt make an appearance in Castle Rock or anything crazy :)

This story features mature themes. Please be advised if any of the following are triggers, proceed with caution:

Foul Language (Frequent F-Bombs)  
Mental Health & Addiction Issues  
Casual Marijuana Use  
Alcohol & Partying  
Sexual Encounters  
Physical Altercations & Fights

Reviews are of course welcome. Thanks to Entangler for encouraging me to do this!


	2. chamberlain

Ace.

"Fuck this goddamn tie!" I ripped it from around my neck, balled it up and threw it on the ground. I was sick of fumbling around with it. No matter how many ways I tried to tie it the damn thing hung off my neck like a noose gone wrong. 

My cellmate Kenny laughed his ass off from the bed next to me. "Man that necktie had you beat ten minutes ago, about time you accepted it. Your lawyer wears a monkey suit to work every day he'll get you straightened out."

I plopped down on my bed and it hit me that it might be for the last time. After ten months in the pen, the day I had to reappear before the judge had come. I had kept my nose clean for the last few months here at the Chamberlain HIlls Juvenile Correctional Facility and my lawyer told me as long as I was real repetentent to the judge I should get my ticket back to Castle Rock.

"You nervous, man?" Kenny snapped me out of my thoughts.

"Nah, lawyer says it should be all good. Just weird to think I've spent almost a year in this shithole."

In sixteen years I had been in more fights than I could count. I'd boosted cars, moved drugs and a whole lot worse stuff I wasn't too keen on remembering...but I'd never been caught. Cops in Castle Rock and all the surrounding towns had my car and plate memorized, but they never managed to pin anything on me...until Eyeball's piece of shit brother and his little pack of girlfriends decided to change all that.

Those little shits always got on my nerves. Eyeball's little brother was an arrogant little son of a bitch, walked around like he was better than everyone. I'd have left it alone if it weren't for that bullshit down on the Back Harlow Road when we found the Brower kid. Chambers kid mouthed off at me and was about to get acquainted with my switch when Denny Lachance's brother, pulled a fucking gun. Little psycho aimed it straight at me and I let them walk away.

The second I got back to my car I regretted not killing all for of them then and there. They'd made me look like an asshole in front of the guys, they insulted me and they had the stones to one up me when they pulled that piece out. I knew I'd get them back for it. And I did.

Tessio's little brother was pathetic, he was walking down the street a few days after we'd all run into each other when I pulled up behind him and pulled him into my car. Kid immediately starts sobbing cause he knew his ass was grass. Drove him to his house and beat the shit out of him on his own front porch. Found Duchamp next, that lunatic tried to scrap back but once he was down a few kicks to the ribs left him pretty tame.

I remember watching Lachance and Chambers climbing down from their little treehouse and I thought about what good fortune I had that I stumbled upon both of them at that very moment. I chased them down in my car and grabbed the Lachance kid first. Chambers was a fucking boy scout, he wouldn't have left his buddy alone so I knew I'd have my best chance to get them both that way. I busted the Lachance kid's nose pretty quickly and knocked him out. That gave me ample time to kick the living shit out of Chris Chambers. I left them both in a bloody heap in the vacant behind the post office. I didnt feel bad about it, the little shits had it coming.

I had taken a hundred beatings in my day. Some from my old man, some from older guys when I was younger, never once did you hear me snitching on anyone who did it. I'd had broken ribs, black eyes...teachers would ask questions and I'd tell them that I fell down the to stairs. Some new guidance counselor at the school, some 23 year old hot blonde naughty librarian liberal type, gets the kids to sing like canaries. One minute I'm shooting a round of pool at Irby's, next minute cops are shoving my face into the table, sneering that they finally got me as they cuffed me.

Four counts of assault and battery on a minor. My lawyer said I got lucky, they tried to throw in an attempted murder charge-Chambers had a few day stay in intensive care after our little altercation and the district attorney wanted to throw the book at me.

My public defender fed them some sob story about how I was an underprivileged youth from a difficult family situation and that I deserved another chance. He waxed poetic about how my mother had left when I was 8, how my brother had died in a bar fight when i was 13 and how my dad was a drunk who lived off disability checks. I had no guidance, no support, I needed help...made me seem like I was some tragic victim, made me sick to listen to it. As sick as it was, it worked...mostly.

The judge was a crafty bastard. He made the deal that I had to spend a year at Chamberlain. If i managed to get through that without fucking it up, I'd get sent home to Castle Rock where if I graduated high school and had no additional arrests by my 18th birthday, that my juvenile record would be sealed and I'd head into adulthood without any bullshit. If i fucked up at any point along the way, I'd stay at Chamberlain until my 18th birthday and then get transferred to the State Pen at Warren for an additional 12 months.

Left without much of a choice, I took the deal and October 1st I headed off to Chamberlain. First couple of weeks were rough. I might have a mean streak but Jesus this place is filled with genuine psychos. My first cellmate was a manic depressive named Dean who was in for a year for killing a bunch of his neighbors pets, real fucking weirdo. Don't think I slept for more than ten minutes at a time those first few weeks.

They forced us into some low budget school and vocational training classes 10 hours a day to keep us busy and to "facilitate our re-entry to society." Half the kids who were in my classes could barely read much less sit still in a classroom for an hour at a time. It was chaos, fucking chaos. I got to work in the auto shop at least, helped give me something to do to pass the time.

At the end of the third week I got jumped by a bunch of French Canadian kids from Bangor and ended up in the infirmary with a concussion and a few cracked ribs. As miserable as that was, it got me a week out of class and out of the cell with that nutjob. I found out getting beating also gets you some sympathy points from the guards and social workers hanging around. My lawyer told me before I went in that whenever I had one on one time to act real sorry and talk about turning my life around. Every chance I got I talked off the nurse and guards ears about how bad I wanted to change and how excited I was to go back and be a good citizen and all that bullshit. When it was time for me to go back to my cell, I had buttered up the guards enough to convince them to switch my cell to get me away from the puppy killer.

As luck would have it, I ended up here, with Kenny Sanders from Scarborough. He was in for 18 months for grand larceny, kid had a system where he had about six girlfriends who all had babysitting gigs. He'd convince them to let him come over when the kids went to bed and he'd get with the girl and slowly rob the house blind. Unfortunately, all the girls found out about each other and it wasn't long before all of the burglaries came back on old Ken. He might not have been the brightest, but he wasn't killing any puppies. He had become a friend over the last 10 months.

"I'm jealous as all hell, man. I got another 6 months minimum. Part of me hopes you fuck it up in court and they kick your ass back. You're a hell of a lot better roommate than most of the psychos in this place." Kenny lay back on his bed as I got up and started to pace around the room. "Hey, I only survived Chamberlain. I still gotta head back home and be a fucking boy scout for a year. With my luck, I'll fuck it up in a month and end up back here."

"You've had decent luck so far dude...you could have gone straight to Warren into GenPop and you managed to dodge it and come here instead. You got the shit kicked out of you early on and got a few guards and nurses in your pocket. You lost the puppy killer and got to live with me the last 9 months. You got your brother's friend to let you crash with him so you don't have to go home. I think if you keep rolling with the luck you got you'll make it to 18 just fine." 

My lawyer had told me that it would be wise to find a more "suitable" guardian to present to the court to assure my release. I hadn't seen my mother in years, my drunk father wasn't going to be any help...I only had one option and it was a longshot. Tommy Carter was my older brother's best friend growing up. Tommy had a few brushes with the law, but had straightened out over the last few years. He'd opened a garage and gas station in town, right on the edge of Castle View and was making a decent living at it. Eyeball had started working for him when he dropped out of high school and he'd always done his best to look out for me after my brother died. Tommy carried alot of guilt for not being there when my brother got jumped, so when I called to let him know the situation he agreed instantly. I never had anyone step up like that for me before, I tried not to feel too much about it, but it gave me a sense of relief that i'd never experienced before.

One of the usual morning guards walked by the door and peeked in through the window and smirked. He rapped on the door before opening it. "Look at you Merrill, all spic and span in your little suit. You know what they say about a hood in a suit, either headed to court or a funeral...which is it for you?"

"Court. Think I'm getting sprung. You'll have to find someone new to piss off." I tried to answer coolly, but could feel my heart rate rise as the possibility that it were true was becoming more and more real by the second.

"Did you figure out your tie yet?" The guard sneered down at me as his eyes went to the balled up tie on the floor.

I bent down and picked it up and wrapped it around my head like a bandana. "Will this do?" Kenny snorted from his bed as the guard's eyes narrowed. "Get your digs in while you can Merrill, hopefully you're right and this will be the last we see of you. " He turned and slammed the door.

Kenny snorted. "Jesus, imagine you walk into court with that thing on your head, you'd be back here in no time. Shit buddy, i'm gonna miss your lousy attitude around here, weird to think next time you walk out this cell door might be your last." He stood up and held out his hand. I took the tie off my head and reached out my hand to shake.

"I hope to god it is, you've made this suck less than it could have but I'm ready to get this over with."

"I can tell, you've been pacing for a few minutes. Gotta calm down with that nervous energy, dont want the judge to think you're hopped up on speed." Kenny laughed.

A figure appeared in the window at our door. My lawyer had arrived. The guard opened the door as he cringed. "I probably should have given you a lesson on how to do the tie…" He hurriedly rushed over and grabbed the balled up tie out of my hand and skillfully twisted the knot around my neck.

"See i told you the lawyer would do it, good technique buddy!" Kenny grinned and gave me the thumbs up.

The public defender rolled his eyes. "You ready?" I nodded. His eyes narrowed. "Use your words Merrill, you want out you're going to need to turn on the charm a little more than that."

"Yes sir, of course sir, I apologize for the lapse in judgement, sir." I smirked as the lawyer rolled his eyes again. The guard reopened the door and I walked out of the cell for what hopefully would be the last time. Time to get myself back to Castle Rock.

"Mr. Merrill, you stand before this court after serving 10 months in the Chamberlain Hills Juvenile Correctional Facility for four counts of assault and battery on a minor."

The judge recited the formalities and I tried to take my public defender's advice and stand up straight and look straight ahead. "You exhibited exemplary behavior, promising academics and what your instructors describe as true talent for automotives." The judge raised an eyebrow at me. "I'm hoping that upon your release you channel those talents into something positive.."

"Yes sir, I've made some mistakes in the past and I just want to give myself an honest living. I'm sincerely trying to put those bad decisions behind me." Just say what he wants you to hear. Anything to get the hell out of Chamberlain.

He squinted his eyes. "I understand your parents aren't here today."

"No your honor, unfortunately they aren't in any shape to attend a preceding of this nature." My lawyer interjected. "My client's mother has been out of his life for several years and his father is an abusive alcoholic." I winced at the phrase. Pops was a real bastard, but to hear him be reduced to those terms, and especially as a tactic to garner sympathy, made my skin crawl.

The judge leaned back in his chair. "And who will be maintaining custody of Mr. Merrill? He is still only 17 and I hope you aren't here with a plea for emancipation."

"Your honor, Mr. Tom Carter is here and will speak on behalf of the boy. He's a close family friend who is of legal age. Mr. Carter owns a mechanic shop and gas station and is prepared to give John a place to stay and continue to develop skills in his trade." I glanced over to see Tom sit up a little straighter on the bench behind me. Tommy had gotten me out of more than one jam over my seventeen years and it meant alot that he was here again today. Despite him not being blood, he seemed like closest thing to a family I had.

"Mr. Carter." Tommy stood. "Are you prepared to claim legal guardianship of Mr. Merrill until he turns 18 next April?" "I am sir. He's a good kid who's had some tough breaks, he knows he's better than this. He's family to me and I promise that I'll do my best to keep him on the straight and narrow." The judge nodded and Tommy sat.

He turned to me. "Mr. Merrill, the administrators at Chamberlain Hills have expressed that they believe you have served your time and are in a place where you could return home and effectively re-enter society. I am prepared to release you to Mr. Carter's custody upon the conditions that you reenroll in high school and maintain an excellent attendance record and passing grades. If you get in any trouble with the law and end up back in this court between now and your graduation, you will serve the full consequences of the law and be tried as an adult rather than a juvenile. If you make it to graduation and your eighteenth birthday, your juvenile record will be sealed and you'll have a fresh start. This is your second chance, there is no third. I hope you will make the best of it." The judge slammed his gavel.

It was over. A year of my life wasted in Chamberlain for putting Eyeball's faggot brother and his friends in the hospital. I felt my face get hot as I thought about those four little shits, but realized that I had to fight every impulse to bolt home and put each of them in a pine box six feet under. I rubbed my eyes and tried to put those thoughts out of my mind. I should just be happy i'm out of here and that I dont have to head back to my pop's place. My public defender patted me on the shoulder. "Congrats kid, don't mess this up for yourself and end up back here in three months. We'll get your release paperwork taken care of and you'll be headed back to Castle Rock."

I hadnt seen anyone from Castle Rock aside from Tommy since I got locked up. I had talked to Eyeball and Vince on the phone once or twice, but i definitely didnt have a clear sense of what i was headed home to. Eyeball had already warned me that I shouldn't expect to have a girl…I thought back to the pretty brunette's tear filled eyes on the night before I left, swearing she'd visit every weekend. Didn't show up once, and if Eyeball's stories are true, she more than kept herself occupied with other guys over the last year.

Leaving the courthouse was a blur, I only remember getting into Tommy's car and getting on the highway back to Castle Rock. "Ace Merrill, free man!" He smiled at me. I nodded. "Time to straighten out Johnny, you don't want to spend the rest of your life going in and out of courthouses."

We were quiet for a few minutes. Tommy helping me out was a big break for me and I knew I couldn't fuck this up. "Thanks again man, I don't know what I…" i trailed off. "Johnny you're the only thing close to a family that I got left. I can't watch you head down the road that I swerved off last second before I straightened out. Don't thank me, just don't blow this shot." I nodded and looked out the window. Things were going to have to change.

We pulled up to the gas station. Tommy had a little house behind it on the edge of the property. I smiled to see Eyeball and the gang waiting on the front steps. "Thought you'd want to see your boys after being locked up for so long." Tommy smiled as he parked the car. I climbed out of the car and was actually relieved to see this bunch of knuckleheads. It didn't seem like much had changed. "The king of the rock has returned!" Eyeball raised a beer and tossed me one. Tommy laughed. "Keep it in the backyard, last thing we need is for you morons to get pinched on aces first night home." We moved to the backyard and I slapped hello to Charlie, Vince and Billy.

"So how bad was it man?"

"Ehh not awful I guess. Just boring. A day seemed like a week in there." I threw back my beer, first one id had in almost a year.

"So what's the deal? You off clean?" Charlie pressed for details.

"Gotta graduate but yeah other than that if I don't fuck up again my juvie record gets sealed."

Eyeball stared in disbelief. "You going back to high school?" Eye had dropped out after sophomore year, he'd worked for tommy a bit and picked up landscaping jobs around town.

"Yeah might as well get the piece of paper while I'm complying with my parole."

"Principal Fletchers gonna shit when he realizes he's stuck with you for a year." Charlie guffawed.

I laughed. "Listen I just want to get in there and get it done. Tommy's gonna have me working on cars with him as long as I keep my shit together so gotta play it low key for a while." The words were hard to get out of my mouth. I had been getting into trouble with these guys for my entire life, and to tell them that I was getting out of the game was hard.

"Man I get it. It was a wake up call for all of us when you went away. We tried to keep a couple of the side deals going when you were gone, but Fuzzy had a close call with the cops and it spooked us all pretty bad. It's been a boring year, we've only gotten shooed away for fighting and drinking really. We were worried you thought we'd gone soft while you were gone." Eyeball meekly smiled.

The Ace Merrill that had sent Chris Chambers on a trip to the ICU would have called the guys standing in front of me pussies a year ago. But honestly, I was relieved to know that they weren't exactly jumping at the chance to boost cars and do the cheap break ins we used to do. It all seemed so convenient, but I knew the second someone offered me a chance for some easy cash for a less than legal deed I'd probably have a tough call to make. I just had to get through the next few months and wait until my record was sealed until I could go back to picking up some jobs on the side.

"Well at least you faggots still have some of your Priorities straight. If you had shown up here with ice tea and cookies I'd catch the first bus back to chamberlain. Let me get another beer." Vince tossed me one. "So, what else did I miss around here?"

"Not much man. Connie finally dropped Billy and is dating some college kid from Portland. That douchebag Tony Raymond knocked some girl up and has to marry her now. Wasn't his girlfriend either, that smokeshow Theresa Gordon is back in the market. His parents made him dump her so he could marry his baby's mother. That's been the big story of the summer." Tony Raymond was one of those idiot football players who walked around with his rich view rat friends and their hot girlfriends and just looked down on everyone else. We always enjoyed when the "castle view elites" got their comeuppances. I laughed. "Please tell me he knocked up Amanda." The guys got quiet when I said her name. "Nah, Alice Gilmore is the lucky lady. Don't even get me started on Amanda. You were lucky you got some time away from her, that girl is nuts...she waited about five minutes until she started with Joey Marshall and he definitely wasn't the only one..."

Eyeball had let me know that Amanda was far from faithful while I was gone, not like I expected her to be, but knowing she'd while I was gone was pretty disgusting. "Yeah when the second month passed and she didn't visit I knew what was up. Shoulda seen her night before I went away with the tears and shit, she almost had me buying it. Probably just made her feel tough to tell people her man was going away."

"So were most of the guys in chamberlain pussies?" Vince pressed.

"A large majority. My roommate was cool though, I lucked out there. He's got another 5 months god only knows what kind of faggot they got him in there with now."

"Well we're glad you're home man. And glad you'll be suffering through senior year with the rest of us." Charlie raised his beer and we all threw back a sip. It felt good to be home, but I wondered how long I had before screwing it all up royally.


	3. mornings can be hard

"Kendall for the love of god, get out of bed we are so late!" I banged on the door and heard whimpers in response. I ran past the bathroom and saw Olivia squirting half a tube of toothpaste on her toothbrush. Oh well, Not worth fighting over.

"Mom? Are you taking them? If you aren't I need a note saying why were late…" i yelled out. "Get me a pen." The muffled response came from the master bedroom. Great. Helpful.

Kendall emerged from her bedroom slowly. "Hustle up kid, you have 5 minutes." "Rory what's for breakfast?" Olivia stood before me looking disheveled. I bent down to straighten her sweater and reclip the bow in her hair. "There's muffins in the pantry, go grab one." "But I'm thirsty too!" She whined.

"Lauren, If you want a note I need a pen come on dear I don't have all day. And don't feed Kendall a muffin, she's getting awfully chubby and I will not have a pig for a daughter." I took a deep breath. She most certainly did have all day, but I guess her big plans for her usual uppers and Pinot Grigio took precedent to helping her daughters get ready for school. "Liv just grab a muffin and I'll be down in 2 minutes, Kendall hurry up you're moving like a turtle."

"A fat turtle!" My mother yelled from her room.

Kendall's lip started to quiver. I ran over to her. "Don't listen to her, you're beautiful and she's unbalanced." I whispered in her ear and gave her a hug. She smiled weakly. Kendall wasn't fat, she was a gorgeous 13 year old who had started to mature into a really great young woman. My mother was a hateful old broad who couldn't handle that her youth was behind her. Over the past year, she had lost her ability to bottle up her resentment over her life and grappled with her fading youth and beauty. She spent most of her days taking out her misery on us.

I jumped into my room and dug out a pen and headed into my mothers room. She laid in bed with a cold cloth on her forehead, an unsurprising accessory given the two empty bottles of wine on her night table. I found a notepad and walked it over to her and handed her the pen. "Three notes. Say you had car trouble." "I'll write my daughters are useless and can't get themselves together without my constant help if I please." She glared at me. "Rory I'm thirsty!" Olivia cried from downstairs. "Write whatever you want." I walked away and shuffled down the stairs to give my sister some juice. "Can you at least put on a pot of coffee?" I heard my mother yell after me. Of course, Ashley, you lie in bed hungover while I take care of everything. I hated when my father was away on business, she at least faked it when he was home in the morning. When he was gone, it was all on me.

I turned on the coffee maker and poured some lemonade into a glass for Olivia and second for Kendall, who had finally come downstairs. "Grab a muffin and pack your bags, I'll be down in 2 minutes."

"Someone has to check my homework! Mom said she'd do it in the morning!" Olivia looked up at me.

"Take it out I'll look in the car."

"Mommy's supposed to sign it."

"I'll sign it."

"That's not allowed…"

"It is for today! Keep it moving girls, we gotta hustle!"

I ran back up the stairs to retrieve the notes from my mother. Ashley Scanlon, former pageant girl and prom queen, had fallen far. She was slumped over her end table trying to compose the tardy notes, her hair a mess and her face haggard.

"Are they ready?"

She shot me a glare. "I didn't hear the coffee pot go on."

"How could you over the girls screaming? It's on. Go downstairs in ten minutes so it doesn't scorch."

She tossed the notes my way. "Car trouble Rory bringing girls to school sorry for late." It was like I had a foreign exchange student with a limited knowledge of English write the note.

"thanks see you later."

"What time will you be home?"

"330 probably."

"That's right because you quit the cheerleading squad and don't have practice anymore."

I cringed. My decision to not return to the cheerleading squad for my senior year had been a huge issue for my mother. She smugly stared at me from her bed. I wasn't taking the bait on another fight over this.

"I have to go take your kids to school. Get yourself together." I snapped and stomped out of her room. She yelled something after me, but I didn't process it. "Let's go!" I grabbed my bag and the girls shuffled out the door behind me.

"Is mommy sick again?" Olivia asked from the backseat.

"Yeah she's tired she'll be better this afternoon."

Kendall scoffed. "She'll be sleeping when we get home. She's a mess."

I shot her a look. Kendall wasn't dumb, despite my best efforts to shield her from my mother's issues, she wasn't blind and saw Ashley falling apart before her very eyes. Seven year old Olivia was still somewhat innocent to the situation and I wanted to keep it that way as long as possible. I dropped the girls at the grammar school and watched them skip toward the door.

I knew I was already 20 minutes late for homeroom, so decided to take my time and I'd show up for second period calculus. I reached into my glove box and pulled out a cigarette and lit it. I inhaled deeply as I slowly processed the chaotic morning. I wondered how many days my father was gone for. It was only the second week of school and we'd had 4 tardies already. The girls teachers would start asking questions. I took another drag and tried to put the thought out of my head.

I drove into the high school parking lot and was stuck with a space in the cheap seats. I began the walk to the school and tried to adjust myself from "home brain" to "school brain." Rory Scanlon at school was a very different person than Rory Scanlon at home. My mother had always taught us to focus on the task at hand with a smile and charm. If you were in public and eyes were on you, there were certain ways to behave. Being mopey or dragging other people into your problems was not acceptable, you held that in and saved it for when you were alone. At school I was well known. I got good grades, I was nominated for homecoming queen, and was dating one of the most popular football players at the school. I'm sure from the outside my life seemed pretty great.

Rory Scanlon at home was a person who no one really knew. She was poked and prodded at by her mother, conditioned to be a perfect, elegant little robot whose main goal was popularity. She was practically ignored by her father, who traveled for business all the time. She was taking on more and more parental responsibility with her sisters as her mother's involvement in day to day life diminished. She was angry that her mother drank and popped pills and behaved erratically.

I stepped into the office and handed my note to the secretary who squinted as she read it. Her expression softened as she wrote out my tardy pass, Ashley's incoherent note was probably a dead giveaway that life in the Scanlon house might be a little unusual.

I walked to my locker and noticed Nick standing there. "Ditch homeroom?" He smiled and leaned in for a kiss. "Tough morning. Ashley's sick and the kids were not cooperative." I shrugged. Nick and I had been together for almost three years, but I'd done an alright job of keeping a lot of my crazy home life from him. I only brought him around the house when absolutely necessary. Nick was great, but he wasn't the type of guy who wanted me to dump all my problems on him. His parents both worked until 6 and his was a more private place to spend afternoons anyway.

Unfortunately it was football season and his long after school practices were forcing me to spend more time at home than i would have liked. If I had stayed on the cheerleading squad I would have had some escape, but there was some big drama over the summer with that crowd pushed me over the edge and wrecked some friendships. I didn't want to spend my last year of high school associating with people that I couldn't stand. My mother had been cheerleading captain, prom queen and homecoming queen and she had pushed me to strive for the same milestones. She took my departure from the squad as a personal insult and made it a constant point of aggravation.

The bell rang and Nick walked me to calculus before heading to biology. People stared at us as we walked down the halls. We were what most people would call "the popular kids" or "class couple." It was all so cheesy, the cheerleader and football star who'd been together since freshman year. He was easily the best looking guy in school, green eyes, 6'3 with muscles straight out of a movie. He was being recruited by five or six colleges to play football and his future looked bright. Nick ate up all of the attention he got and over the years had developed a little bit of a "my shit don't stink" attitude, which I didn't love but hoped would dissipate when we headed off to college together the following fall. I sat down at my desk and tried to focus on the problems on the chalkboard rather than the issues at home. I couldn't help but wonder how I was going to make it through the year if every morning started like this one.


	4. the view from camelot

_Ace_

Charlie was right. Principal Fletcher was not happy to see John Merrill standing before him to re enroll in high school. Tommy vouched for me as hard as he could, but I could tell fletcher would be on my ass at every turn.

I had always taken a very in and out approach to high school. Show up late, take a long lunch, catch a class when I could. After my first week of staying at school for a full day and then working down at the garage til 8 had me exhausted. Tommy wasn't charging me rent and insisted on paying me a decent wage for my work. I was grateful, but I had never had to budget time for a job, homework and a full day of classes before. Going straight is a ton of fucking work.

I was working a shift covering the gas pumps one night the first week of October. A nice looking white camaro pulled up to the pump and I walked out to fill it up. Inside sat one of those uppity country club mothers and I recognized the girl next to her as Rory Scanlon, one of those snobby view chicks who dated Nick Wilson, the star football player.

"Darling could you fill me up?" Rory's mother leaned toward me, almost seductively from the passenger's seat. Her low cut top was impossible to avoid looking at.

"Sure thing ma'am." I stepped over to the pump.

"Doll, are you at castle rock high? Do you know my daughter?" I turned back and the woman had gotten out of the car and stood next to me as I clicked the lever on the pump. The slur in her voice and her unsteadiness on her feet were impossible to ignore, this lady was three sheets to the wind.

"Mom stop, get back in the car." My eyes drifted to Rory in the driver's seat as she pleaded with her mother.

"Oh come now Lauren, be polite. This young man is a vote for you!" I saw Rory cringe. The older woman's slurring became more obvious. "Now doll, what's your name?" She placed her hand on my arm and smiled.

"His names Ace Merrill and he doesn't give two shits about homecoming." I was kind of surprised the girl even knew my name, but figured my year away made me somewhat of a celebrity. At first I thought the girl was embarrassed to be talking to some low life hood like me, but quickly assessed the situation and realized her angst was directed at her drunk mother.

"Lauren your language! Forgive her, she's under a lot of stress I don't know what came over her." She smiled at me while shooting her daughter a glare.

"Now, Ace was it? Well my ungrateful daughter is nominated for homecoming queen and we would love if you took the time to send a vote her way. Isn't she beautiful? Wouldn't she make the perfect queen? I was homecoming queen and prom queen at my high school, I'm dying for Lauren to be the same! Oh I might have a "vote Rory" button for you! I detest that nickname but I guess it did stick-" she was cut off by Rory exiting the car.

"Mom, please let Ace do his job and come sit in the car. Can you just fill it up please?" A look of desperation painted Rory's face as she reached for her mother's arm.

"Lauren dear I'm doing this for you why must you insist upon making a scene!" She shook Rory's hand away from her own and placed it on my chest. Rory's eyes grew wide as her mother proceeded to run her fingertip gently up and down my chest. "Now doll, it would mean a whole lot to me to get my princess the title, would you please cast a vote for her?" I looked back at Rory, whose face had turned red.

"It would be a pleasure Mrs Scanlon. But Your daughter is right, I do need to get back to work. Consider my vote for Rory." I glanced at Rory who mouthed "thank you" to me. She wasn't thanking me for the vote. It was clear she wanted to wrap this up and get her mother home before she embarrassed herself even further.

Her mother seemed to soften at my response. "You are such a sweet boy, and so hardworking! And please, call me Ashley." I saw Rory step toward her again. She did too. "Alright Rory I'll get in the car, just needed to show you how to campaign a little stronger." She winked at me. I tried to politely smile as Rory walked her back around to the passenger door.

I tried not to eavesdrop, but couldn't help but overhear them continue to fight in the car. It was pretty clear that this wasn't the first time Rory had dealt with something like this. The pump clicked off and the girls went silent in the car as I replaced the nozzle on the tank.

"Ace darling, come around my side." Mrs Scanlon beckoned. She held out a $10 and told me to keep the change and placed a "vote for rory" button in my hand. She winked again and smiled wider. Rory stared straight ahead, an icy cold glare painted her face. I stepped back from the car and she peeled away.

"Jesus, was that Luke Scanlon's wife?" Tommy had emerged from the shop.

"Yeah, she didn't seem like her head was on right."

Tommy shook his head. "Guarantee it wasn't. The broads a disaster. Luke comes around every so often…" he trailed off. I knew what that meant.

Tommy might have straightened up since his younger years, but he had always been and will always be the guy you call when you need some grass. His cousin grew the stuff wild on a farm in Vermont and he made a good little side hustle discreetly taking care of a few loyal patrons. Usually tommy and I watched tv together at night, but sometimes a knock at the door would prompt him to give me the eye to make myself scarce. I wondered how many times Rory's dad had been the knock on the door that banished me to my room. If I were married to that mess I'd be doing worse than grass, so I didn't blame him for it one bit.

Tommy continued. "He's not a bad guy for that country club crowd. Feel bad for him that his wife's such a trainwreck. You know the daughter, right"

"Everyone knows who Rory Scanlon is. Wouldn't exactly say I know her."

"Yeah got the impression she's a princess type. But with a mother like that the poor kid can't have it easy." Tommy shook his head.

"Guess all isn't as it seems in Camelot." I said under my breath holding the button in my hand.


	5. ignore it until it goes away

_Rory_

"What the hell was that?!" I screamed as we drove away from the gas station.

"Lauren your language!"

"Fuck my language what on earth are you doing? You're so shitfaced you rubbed your hands all over a 17 year old boy to get him to vote for homecoming queen!"

"A good homecoming queen reaches out to all her subjects, even poor depraved young men like that. He was good looking though-."

"You're gross, he's my age."

"Not for me darling, and certainly not for you either. He'll end up with some diner waitress and do right by her I'll bet." Ashley's words disgusted me. Leave it to her to find ways to slide in elitist digs after the performance she had given at the gas station.

I parked the car and noticed the house was dark. "Mom where are the girls?"

Ashley whipped around towards me. "They're at school."

"It's almost 7:00 and they clearly aren't here where are they?" I started to panic. The one day I hadn't come straight home. Coach had cancelled football practice so I had headed to Nick's after school. When Marilyn Fredette's husband called Nick's house looking for me, he told me he had tried our house to no avail and hoped I was maybe with my boyfriend. He told me my mother had drank nearly a full bottle of gin and that someone had to come collect her. I shuddered thinking of the fredettes sneering at me as I half carried my wasted mother out of the house.

"Your father took them out then." Ashley said as she stumbled toward the front door. I reached around her with my keys to unlock it. I noticed a suitcase in the front hall, which did indicate that my father had returned home from his business trip. I hoped to god my sisters were out somewhere with him.

Ashley kicked off her heels and strutted over to the bar in the living room. "Don't you think you've had enough?" I chased after her.

"You seem to forget that I'm the adult and you're the child. Go to your room, you're punished." She slurred at me as she opened a bottle of vodka.

"Fine. I'm calling Nick he has to come get me so I can go get my car."

Ashley's demeanor changed. "Oh can Nick stay for dinner? He's such a lovely boy…"

"No he's all set he'll just pick me up."

"You better be good to him Lauren, a boy like that will take you places. You don't want to end up stuck in this town with a husband who's never home and three ungrateful daughters." She poured the vodka into a glass and drank it straight.

"You're gross." I turned to walk toward the phone in the kitchen when i noticed headlights pull into the driveway. I heard the chatter of my sisters grow closer to the door. I sighed with relief.

"Put the drink away the girls don't need to see you like this." Ashley rolled her eyes. "Tell them it's water. I'm quite dehydrated."

The door opened and the girls shuffled in, my father behind them. He took one look at my mother and his face grew cold. "Girls, upstairs!" The little ones bolted up the stairs towards their room. I went to take a step to follow them. "Not you. Where's your car?" He sternly asked me. "Still at Nick's. He had to bring me to marilyns to get this one home. I was heading to call him to see if he can come get me so I can grab it."

His eyes moved to my mother. "Jesus Christ, this again?" He stepped toward her and grabbed the glass from in front of her. "When 6 o'clock came and you weren't here I took the girls out for dinner. What the hell are you thinking?"

"I was with a girlfriend and lost track of time!" She smiled. I knew what was next. She'd start to wiggle her hips as she walked over to him and put her arms around him, her usual game to distract my father from whatever state she was in.

"Lost track of time so Rory had to come get you? We talked about this, one more episode and you're headed back to the spa." 'The spa' was what we called the mental health center down in old orchard beach where Ashley had stayed a few times over the years. She'd leave for a few weeks and come home all doped up on a cocktail of uppers and downers. She'd be relatively docile for a couple of weeks, but inevitably it would all come crashing down again.

"Luke, darling I got a little carried away with a girlfriend. Won't happen again I promise." Like clockwork she swiveled up to him and put her arms around his waist. He pushed her away. "Touch me again and you leave tonight." My ears perked up and I prayed he was serious.

Ashley's jaw fell open. "Can't we discuss this? Darling you've been away and I've been lonely...please let's just go upstairs and talk about this…"

My father's expression softened. I knew she wasn't going anywhere but up to the bedroom.

I was disgusted. I walked over toward the phone and my father snapped at me. "Where are you going?"

"To call Nick. I have to get my car."

"Make it quick, your mother and I need to talk and I don't need the girls interrupting."

"Got it." My skin crawled as I went to the phone. I walked toward the front door to wait for Nick on the steps. No way was I inviting Him over for a big dose of the disaster inside. I sat in the cold air and slowly started to process my mother's behavior at the gas station. I knew she had problems, and I knew she drank and popped pills to numb herself from those problems. I felt guilty for not being more sympathetic, but seeing how she behaved made it hard to feel sorry for her.

The headlights approached and Nick arrived to rescue me. "Your mom ok?" He asked. "Yeah, I think marilyns cooking did her in. Thanks again for driving me over there…and picking me up now." I smiled. He didn't press the issue. The inner workings of the Scanlon family never really interested Nick. He played nice with my parents and all but I kept a solid wall between my life at home and my life at school. Nick started to ramble on about some crazy story he had heard earlier that day but I barely listened. I invested all of my energy into praying that Luke was serious and that Ashley might be headed for a few days at the spa to get herself together. I didn't get my hopes up.

"You wanna come in?" Nick asked as he pulled up to his house. "Nah I gotta get back, dad just got home today and with mom not feeling well then girls will be too much for him." He made a pouty face and I leaned in and kissed him. "You're breaking my heart Scanlon." He yelled out the window as I walked to my car. "You'll live. I'll call you later." I jumped in the car and sped home.

I slowed as I drove by the gas station. I saw Ace Merrill shutting down the shop for the night. Part of me wanted to stop and thank him for helping diffuse the situation earlier, but i couldn't think of a way to do that without it being cripplingly awkward. "Hey buddy, I know we've never talked before but thanks for telling my shitfaced mom you'd vote for me for homecoming queen while she shoved her tits in your face." Yeah, didn't exactly come out smooth. I had to get home anyway, god knows what Ashley was up to now.

I walked into an unexpected calmness.

"Rory? Living room, now."

Great. I walked in to see my father sitting on the couch alone.

"Where's Ashley?" I plopped down on a chair across from him.

"Dreaming sweet dreams." He took a sip of his scotch.

"So you convinced her to swap out the booze for sedatives? Smart."

He shot me a look. "Its A doctor prescribed sleep aid."

"Great so she'll be on double uppers in the morning to balance it."

"She's having a hard time…"

"no shit dad. She's losing a grip on reality. She threw herself at a high school kid today. She got too shitfaced off martinis at marilyn's that they had to call me to get her home. She needs to go away for awhile its not healthy for anyone to have her here."

My dad shook his head. "The girls need their mother."

"She's hardly there for them. She puts it on when you're home but the second you leave she's in bed all day."

"That's not true-."

"It is true!" I jumped out of the chair and walked over to him. "She's sick and we can't ignore it any longer. You need to do something."

He stared into the bottom of his glass, avoiding my eye contact. "We'll see how she is in the morning."

My eyes narrowed. "Are we done here?"

He raised an eyebrow. "Go check on your sisters." I spun away and up the stairs. He was useless.

I poked my head into Olivia's room, she was fast asleep. I tucked her in and she snuggled closer with her stuffed bear. I tapped on Kendall's door and she opened it slightly "I'm on the phone I'll be off by ten, promise!" She smiled brightly. "What's his name?" I asked as her cheeks turned pink and she shut the door.

I headed into my room and changed into pajamas. I reached for a tin I hid under my mattress. Theresa and I had first smoked grass at a party sophomore year and we both developed a taste for it. Tony and Nick Hated that we did it, so we always kept it secret. Theresa's sisters boyfriend always got us a steady supply, and we'd always sneak out onto the little alcove on the roof outside my window and sneak a joint every now and then. As things had gotten crazier at home, I found puffing a little before bed always calmed me down and helped me sleep. I quickly twisted a small joint and climbed out on my roof. I sparked it and inhaled deeply. ...

I thought of my sisters. They were sweet kids who deserved a good mother. Ashley was slipping away and I felt like the only one who was really seeing it. I hoped my dad would stay around for a while and that would level her out. I snuffed out the joint and climbed back in my room. I curled up in bed and my mind flashed randomly to Ace at the gas station, the way he recoiled from my mother's touch when she flirted with him. I guess I wasn't the only one seeing my mother spiral, aces reaction showed me he saw something was fucked up there too. I took a small comfort in that as I closed my eyes and drifted off to sleep.


	6. the queen and the gutter

Ace

The days went by and the fall air grew cooler. Every day was the same. Up at 6 to man the shop for an hour before I headed off to school then back to work til 8 then dinner and homework until I passed out. Tommy was a slave driver, stayed on me at work and then the second I got home was expecting me to have my nose in a book. Weekend nights were spent having a few low key beers with the guys down Irby's, but I was growing tired of the monotony of it all. It was good to be home, but I missed the action. I missed tossing the gang in the car and heading out to cause some trouble. I missed having a steady stream of income on the side from selling booze to freshmen or a bag of coke to the baseball captain...doing this straight was alot harder than I ever expected.

I had at least made it to Friday. Tommy gave me most friday nights off and I was ready to relax. I walked in and the whole school was decorated for homecoming. I laughed when I saw a few girls wearing "Vote for Rory" buttons around. Ashley would be proud, her daughter was certainly popular.

In homeroom, the ballots to vote for king and queen were distributed. My eye was drawn to Rory's picture. She was definitely a smokeshow, probably the hottest girl in the school. A bright smile, full lips and sultry brown eyes stared up from the ballot. The photo didn't show much of her body, which a Pinup model would have killed for, tall with long legs and jiggle in all of the right places.

I checked the box next to Rory's name. Figured I made a promise and I should keep it. And I couldn't imagine what Rory would have to deal with if she came home without a crown.

I caught up with Vince on my way to my next class. "I voted for Rory Scanlon cause she's got the best ass of the three." He held up his homecoming ballot.

"Who fucking cares?" I fumbled with my combination lock.

"Come on man, you're a high schooler again, get into the school spirit crap. It at least means today's a layup, no teacher in their right mind can contain all this pep!"

"What girl are you trying to get with that has your mind even thinking about this kind of stuff?" Vince grinned. "Sylvia Palumbo."

I coughed. I had drunkenly hooked up with Sylvia at a party sophomore year. She was one of those stuck up view rats, but she looked damn good. Every so often one of those snobby broads felt like slumming it and I was always happy to oblige. Vince Could have his turn.

"You taking her to the dance?"

"Nah, gonna catch her after. No point in buying tickets to the dance when I can get her for free later."

The bell rang and we went our separate ways to class. Vince was right, teachers had all but given up that day. I fell asleep in the middle of British literature and no one even noticed. Classes were ending early for the pep rally where the homecoming king and queen would be announced. The game was after school and the dance followed the game. I was hoping I could slip out before the pep rally, the idea of sitting through that garbage made my stomach turn.

Unfortunately, I wasn't so lucky. Teachers stood at all the exits and ushered everyone to the football field. I wandered to the back of the bleachers and spotted Charlie. "Bullshit man, they cut our education short for this popularity contest and force us to stick around for it." Half the town seemed to pour into the stands, proving that castle rock is just another lame suburb with nothing better to do than see some high school kids hit their peak and win a crown.

Principal Fletcher took the stage and announced the finalists for homecoming king and queen. I laughed at the three girls shivering in their gowns in the cold October air. Kind of cruel to make them stand outside like that. The three nominees for king all stood alongside them, all wearing football uniforms. I think it was written into Maine state law that the homecoming king had to be a football player.

I noticed Ashley Scanlon stumble in while fletcher rambled on about the tradition of homecoming. I saw her unsteadily weave through the crowd and maneuver for a front row seat. Something told me if Rory didn't get her crown that her mother would rush the stage. Part of me wouldn't mind seeing that, it would add some excitement to this school mandated "fun."

And sure enough. The votes were read and Rory Scanlon is homecoming queen. Her mother rushed the stage anyway, running up with tears in her eyes to hug her. Rory looked horrified but tried to keep her cool. seconds later, her captain America looking boyfriend was crowned king. The crowds gathered closer to the stage and Charlie and I used that as our opportunity to get out of there.

"What a surprise, hottest girl in school wins queen." Charlie laughed as we bolted to the exit. "a hot castle view snob is better than an ugly castle view snob I guess." I shrugged.

He shook his head. "She ain't so bad, she was in my group for a history project last year. She's kind of funny actually. Not as stuck up as you'd expect."

We headed to my car, figuring out our plans for the night. Charlie went silent. I looked up and realized I was about to cross paths with Amanda for the first time since I'd been home. I had successfully dodged her a few times, and I guess six weeks is a long time to lose someone in a small town. Her eyes narrowed as we approached where their group was standing.

"Someone told me you were back in school and i didn't believe them, but sure as shit here you are." She popped out her hip and rested her hand on it.

"Yup." It was all I could muster.

The petite brunette and I had been on again off again for a few years. She was the kind of dame that gave you moments where you thought you could never love another human more and just as many moments where you wanted to strangle her as she slept.

"Yup? That's it?"

"Well on all accounts you've been pretty busy, wouldn't want to bore you with details."

"I wanted to visit but no one would drive me."

"So you jumped right on Joe Marshall's cock? Save it amanda, been trying to stay out of your way since I've been home and I don't need some big reunion here."

Her face turned red and I could sense her getting angry. "You were dumb enough to get locked up and ruin what we had, I was lonely I did what I had to do."

"And I'm thrilled for you, sincerely. But I have no interest in talking to you or seeing you again so have a nice day." I scowled and continued to walk. She ran after me.

"Look at you all high and mighty. Everyone said you had gone soft when you got home and I didn't believe them. But here I am seeing it with my own eyes. Ace Merrill, schoolboy leaving the pep rally. Never thought I'd see the day."

"I had to do something to pull myself out of the gutter, got scared that I'd get desperate and end up stuck with you for the long haul." I glared down at her and her eyes blazed right back at me.

"I'd rather be in the gutter than in those bleachers pretending I'm something I'm not." She narrowed her eyes at me. I stared at the girl who used to be my ride or die. She always down to jump in my car and head out to move some grass or get in fights. She loved the life.

I shook my head. Maybe it was the year away, maybe it was how quickly she had dropped me, maybe it was how she called me out for going soft, but when I looked at Amanda I didn't feel the adrenaline pumping like I used to. "Well then looks like we agree to stay out of each other's way. Have a nice life." I spun and walked away. 6 weeks in of trying to play it straight, I knew a girl like Amanda would be a one way ticket back to lockup. Let her call me soft. I'd rather be soft than stupid.

"you'll come crawling back. You always do. Hopefully you toughen up before you come back begging me for another chance, I don't mess with pussies." She yelled after me.

Charlie and I headed toward my car. "Jesus man, that girl is a piece of work." "Fuck her. She thinks I'm soft she can go find someone else. I'm all set with that." We reached my car. I climbed in and lit a cigarette.

"No offense man, but I've heard that before. You never can manage to stay away from her for long."

I shot him a glare, but secretly hoped that he wasn't right.


	7. a problem too big to solve

_Rory_

"Tre you're sure…" I took a deep breath and looked over to my best friend sitting next to me. We were wrapped in blankets perched on the alcove outside my window passing a joint back and forth. It was Halloween night and the streets were swarmed with trick or treaters. Ashley and Luke had joined some of our neighbors walking Olivia around the streets to collect candy. Aside from her showing up to the homecoming pep rally sauced, Ashley had slightly mellowed out in the days following my father's return. I couldn't tell if it were his presence that helped or if he was just pumping her full of sedatives every chance he got.

Theresa's face was twisted. "Look, all I know is what I heard. Consider my source we all know she's full of it." Theresa stared at me with her big brown eyes full of worry.

Rumor had it that the Saturday after homecoming that Nick had gone to a party at one of his friends beach houses and hooked up with some sophomore. He told me he had a family party that night and apparently somehow ended up down in Scarborough with Jenna Connors, some barbie doll looking bimbo.

My mind started racing of all of the weekend nights we hadn't been together over the last few years. Was Jenna the first? Had this been happening all along? Was it even true?

Theresa had been through her own share of boy issues this year. She had been dating Nick's best friend Tony since shortly after we got together. We always thought it was so great, two best friends dating two best friends.

Tony's family never liked theresa, she lived in castle view but in a smaller house and weren't in the country club crowd like Tony's family. Tre's dad was a state trooper who died on the job when we were in junior high. They were able to keep his pension, but both Theresa's mom and sister worked as hairdressers to make ends meet. Tony and Theresa's relationship was always a little more up and down than mine and Nick's.

Over the summer, everything had fallen apart. tony knocked up alice Gilmore, a pretty blonde haired junior who'd he'd been having a secret fling with for months. His parents are friends with the gilmores and determined the solution was for them to get married when tony graduates and raise the baby together. Theresa was collateral damage.

When word got out, things got ugly. All of our old friends sided with Tony and turned on Theresa. Nick and I stopped speaking for two weeks because I refused to cut her off. Tony was to blame for all of this, and Theresa was only getting cut off because the Castle View Country Club families stick together. She's been my best friend since first grade and watching people who I thought were my friends cut someone off so coldly completely shook my world. I quit the cheerleading squad, told off the whole pack of them and sided with theresa. Nick eventually came around, but it's awkward when we go to parties now and half the room refuses to speak to me. Him cheating on me with Jenna would make so much sense...the whole tony/Theresa situation had caused some stress between us and there was so much pressure on him to land a football scholarship...Ugh I didn't want to think about it.

"Look it might not be true. I just worry cause he lied about where he was…" Theresa continued.

"I know." I was silent. I was upset, but not as upset as I would have been six months ago. Nick's ego had grown immensely over our time together. He never treated me poorly, but it did bother me the way he picked on the nerdy kids in class and the way he looked down his nose at "working stiffs" as he called them. His obsession with making senior year the best year of his life was over the top. You heard about it all the time, couples who are together until senior year when one of them wants to go buck wild before college. Maybe we had just run our course?

"You're too quiet you're scaring me." Theresa snapped me out of my thoughts.

"I'm trying to figure out why I'm not more upset." Her eyes widened. "What do you mean?"

I sighed. "I feel like the last few months I've only stayed with Nick cause I can escape my house when I'm there."

Tre knew that things at the Scanlon house weren't pleasant. I spent a lot of nights sleeping over her place. Her mom was a riot and I'd become good friends with her older sister nancy and her best friend Jeanette. They had been a welcomed breath of fresh air when we stopped hanging out with the cheerleaders.

Theresa furrowed her brow. "Honestly, with your mom so unhinged this is the last thing you need to worry about."

"Exactly. Her little appearance on stage when I got crowned was the most embarrassing thing ever. Nick asked me if she was drunk and I said she was on cold medicine." I shook my head thinking about it.

"Rory you don't even tell your boyfriend of three years what's going on at home...I mean if you can't rely on him for that why are you planning on following him to college?" The words stung but she had a point. There were no secrets between me and Theresa, we always kept it 100% honest. I had applied to exactly 6 colleges-5 places that Nick was being recruited by and one that I had kept secret, just to see if I could get in. Nick's first choice was penn state, and a bunch of other big name state schools with big football programs rounded off the list. I had always dreamed of going to college in a city. My dad was from Boston and we would go visit family there a couple times a year. No one had to know I had applied to Boston University, it was my little secret, one I hadn't even shared with Theresa.

"You keep zoning out, talk to me." Theresa snapped me back to reality again. "Look, I applied to one other school. I guess subconsciously i thought I should have a backup plan. My future isn't necessarily tied to his, but I don't have the mental capacity to deal with a big relationship talk with him right now. I just want to go through the motions until I know for sure he's messing around on me."

Theresa's jaw dropped. "What school? Oh my god he will kill you if he finds out you have a backup plan…"

"BU and he won't find out cause it's just you and me that know." I held up my pinky to swear our secrecy and tre linked hers with mine.

"Lips sealed. Can we go inside? I'm freezing!" We both slid through the window and jumped on my bed, feeling light and airy from the joint.

"Is it selfish for me to want you to break up with Nick so we can be single together? I mean, we would absolutely kill it." We collapsed in a fit of giggles.

"Ugh breaking up with Nick seems like so much work. I wish he would just dump me-"

I was interrupted when my bedroom door swung open.

"I hope you're joking." My mother stood there coldly looking down at me.

"What?" I popped up and rubbed my eyes, trying not to look stoned.

"Lauren I just heard you say you were thinking of breaking up with Nick what on earth are you thinking?"

Whatever my dad had given to calm her down before heading out to play "happy trick or treating family" had clearly worn off. "It's nothing, don't worry about it." I mumbled.

"Theresa it's time for you to leave. I need to chat with Lauren." Tre's eyes grew wide as she gathered her stuff and slipped out of the room.

"I was walking to the bathroom and clear as day I hear you yell that breaking up with Nick would be too much work...would you like to explain how a thought like that ever entered your brain?" She was eerily calm. My heart raced a little faster.

"It's nothing we were just joking-." Before I knew it my head snapped as her open hand slapped across my cheek. I grabbed my stinging face and looked up at her horrified.

"Have you lost your mind?" I jumped off the bed and away from her.

"Have you!? You have the perfect life and you're thinking about throwing it away on a whim to be single with your pathetic girlfriend!"

"Do you really think my life is perfect? You think because I got some stupid homecoming crown that everything is wonderful?" I glared at her, backing away further.

"You've thrown away so much. You quit cheerleading, wouldn't stick with pageants, and now you want to break up with the most popular boy in school?"

"Have you ever thought for a second that I don't want your life? That I'm sick and tired of you telling me who I'm supposed to be? If you must know, I said what I said to Theresa because I found out he's got someone else on the side. Do you expect me to put up with that?"

"For a boy like that, absolutely. He could play professional football and give you an incredible life! Do you think your father's been faithful? Girls like us make sacrifices!"

I scoffed. "Girls like you maybe, I'm not going to set myself up to be miserable and then spend the rest of my life drinking away my troubles." That was harsh. I was going to pay for that.

Footsteps running up the stairs distracted her momentarily. "Mommy I can't find my pajamas!" Olivia yelled as she barged into my room, still in her Cinderella costume and tiara. The sweet little thing had no understanding of what she had walked into.

"For the love of god Olivia can you do anything for yourself? Mommy get me a juice, mommy find my pajamas, can you breathe for yourself?"

I jumped over to Olivia, whos lip started to quiver. I picked her up and carried her down the stairs as she sobbed into my shoulder.

"What the hell happened? Why's she crying?" My father stood in the hallway.

"Your psychotic wife just slapped me across the face and made your seven year old cry, why don't you do something about it for once?" He stared daggers at me then turned on his heels and marched upstairs.

I sat down on the couch with Olivia on my lap. "Please don't cry, she doesn't mean it." I held her close.

"Kendall says she's a drunk. People at school say that's a bad thing." She said between sobs.

"She's sick, Livvie, she doesn't understand what she's saying and she doesn't mean it."

My little sister looked up at me with her big brown eyes. "Yes she does. She wants to hurt us so we're sad like she is." My heart broke. I wished my sisters didn't have to deal with Ashley's erratic behavior, it killed me that this little girl was starting to understand what was going on around her.

My sister's eyes narrowed. "Why is your face all red?" She touched my still stinging cheek. "I'm just upset, I don't like seeing you sad." I smiled and pulled her hand away. "Let's go find your pajamas and you can show me all the stuff you got trick or treating, sound good?" She tried to smile as she hopped off my lap.

I heard the yelling start upstairs and tried to keep Olivia downstairs to avoid it. I distracted her by helping her sort through the dozens of candy bars and treats she had come home with.

About a half hour later, my father appeared in the kitchen looking haggard. "Mommy's sorry Olivia, she wasn't feeling well. Why don't you start to get ready for bed, you probably won't sleep after all that candy but Rory or i will be up to read you a story in a few minutes."

I glared at him. Keep making excuses and then pumping her full of pills to knock her out. It doesn't fix anything. Olivia reluctantly headed upstairs, I went to follow her knowing my father would stop me.

"Look she shouldn't have hit you…" he said as soon as Olivia was out of eyeshot.

"astute observation. Did you read that in a parenting book?"

"What am I supposed to do, Rory? She's losing her mind there isn't a clear cut solution for this!"

"Send her to the spa. She's doing more harm than good here you have to be able to see that."

He rubbed his face. "She won't go."

"Make her! Call the police on her or something and let her get dragged away she can't be home anymore!"

"If I ever embarrassed her like that she'd never forgive me. If anyone knew…"

"Dad people aren't stupid! She acts crazy all over town. If you had seen the way the Fredette's stared down at me when I picked her up there that day she was drunk, you'd know there was no way they'd keep this to themselves. She ran on stage drunk at homecoming in front of the whole town, everyone knows she's a disaster. You are the only one who can do something about it and you're just paralyzed." I stepped closer to him. "Dad I'm begging you, you have to help her we can't keep going on like this."

He looked away. "It'll be fine once she gets some sleep. Trick or treating was exhausting."

My heart sank. I had never felt so let down in my entire life. I felt tears start to form in my eyes and a pit grow in my stomach. This was the new normal. I walked toward my room and turned around to my father. "This is on you. Whatever happens from this moment forward is all on you. I won't forget how you did nothing." He winced at my words and I spun away.

I peeked into Olivia's room and she was sitting up in bed with a large picture book on her lap. "I'm glad it's you and not daddy." She smiled and handed me a copy of Eloise, one of our favorites. The story of a little girl who lived like a princess at the plaza hotel. As I read, Olivia gushed about how she wished she lived in a hotel and how she would roller skate through the halls just like Eloise. "Eloise seems pretty happy without having a mom to wreck everything." Olivia said quietly as i read the last page and closed the book. I kissed her forehead. "Don't say that liv, things will get better in the morning."

I stepped toward the door and flipped off her light. I could barely swallow how easily i repeated my father's words to my sister. I just didn't want her to worry. I thought for a moment if maybe my father looked at me like I looked at Olivia, like a little girl he didn't want to worry about a problem she couldn't solve.


	8. crash

_Ace_

"Nice to see you're staying out of trouble, son. Have a Happy Thanksgiving!" Billy Tessio's mother handed me a few singles through the window as I closed her gas tank. It was the first freezing cold day in November, the day before thanksgiving. Since it was only a half day, Tommy called me out of school. He had a dentist appointment to address a hot tooth and needed an extra set of hands around the shop for the day.

Out of the corner of my eye, I saw a familiar white Camaro pull out into traffic, narrowly missing a Ford. It was quarter to twelve and Ashley Scanlon was already sauced. I shook my head and walked back toward the counter that Eyeball was manning.

"Man time is crawling today. Tommy was convinced it was gonna be busy today but I bet most people who were leaving headed out last night. Mrs Tessio is the 5th car to come through all day." Eyeball paced behind the counter. He wasn't wrong. I'd been there since 6am and there hadn't been much action.

"Schools letting out soon, probably see a bump after that."

"Hope so, I could use some extra cash. People are generally in tipping moods on holidays." Eyeball walked over the the vending machine and pulled out a coke.

A black ford I recognized pulled up filled with a pack of squawking girls. I recognized Amanda's shrill voice immediately. "This one's all you man, I'm not dealing with that shit." I walked toward the back of the counter and tried to stay out of sight.

"Fuck, that's Marie Reynolds driving. She hates my guts." Eyeball moaned. "Anything she tries to start is better than what Amanda will dish out. I got tessios mom it's your turn." He reluctantly walked outside and I busied myself around the counter. I could feel Amanda's eyes on me through the glass. I knew the second I looked up she'd probably come strutting through the door and try to go at it again. Hopefully if I avoided her eye contact I'd be in the clear.

I heard the car start up again and I looked up and met Amanda's eyes staring at me through the glass from the back seat. She reached her arm out the window and gave me the middle finger as they drove away.

I shook my head as Eyeball walked back in. "Those girls are the absolute worst. Ace I know Amanda looks good but Jesus Christ I dont know how you put up with her for so long, she's a grade-A bitch." 

"She's good for one thing and that's about it. Not trying to pick up any of Marshall's sloppy seconds, I want my first taste after being locked up to be worth it." I smiled.

"You really haven't gotten any since you've been back? Christ Ace, you had two crawling all over you at Irby's last weekend, I thought you would have gotten with one of them." Eyeball looked at me in disbelief. I never had a hard time getting a girl's attention, but the girls who hung around Irby's weren't doing it for me. I shrugged. "Maybe this weekend we'll drive out to Portland or something, Mudgett has that cousin who tends bar at that place down on the South Side, he'll let us in and we'll score some out of town tail."

Eyeball grinned. "Thanksgiving weekend too, places are gonna be crawling with drunk college girls home on break. I think this plan has legs."

A car pulled in and I jumped over the counter and out the door. "Hopefully this guy is in a tipping mood, if we're heading to Portland I'm going to need beer money." I smiled as I headed out to the Chrysler at pump two.

A few cars came in and out as the clock struck noon. Eye was right, people were being generous during the holidays as I thanked the family of five for the extra tip as they drove away. I saw Eyeball politely lean in to grab a tip from the elderly couple he had filled up. As they drove away, he smiled and gave me the thumbs up.

My eyes grew wide as I saw the White Camaro peel into the parking lot at a breakneck speed. Eyeball turned and jumped quickly out of the cars path. Ashley Scanlon swerved into the parking lot and i swore she met my eyes as the car fishtailed. She turned the wheel at what seemed like the last second, and altered course slightly. The rear drivers side of the car smashed into the garbage barrell at the end of the pump, narrowly missing the pump itself. I saw two brown heads with bows in the backseat jostle around on impact. My heart was racing as I processed the scene before me. I looked at eyeball who was in a similar state. Six inches and that car would have swerved right into the pump and the whole place would have gone up in flames.

I ran over to the car as a disoriented Ashley emerged. The two girls huddled in the backseat, the older one trying to comfort the smaller one who was sobbing.

"Ace darling you wouldn't believe it! I could have sworn I saw a loose dog run in front of my car I swerved and just missed it!" She slurred as she stumbled toward me. She knew I didnt see a dog. She didnt see a dog. There was no dog. She was shitfaced, worse than the last time I'd seen her. I made the mistake of looking at the kids in the backseat. The older one caught my eye and looked at me with the same desperate panic that I had seen on her sisters face a few weeks before. Fuck me, this is the last thing I need to deal with right now.

"You must be very shaken up." It was all I could muster. She stepped closer to me and pulled me toward her. "Oh it was terrible, so very scary, do you have a place I could sit down for a moment? Hate to be any trouble, but need to collect myself before I head out." She smiled widely and I noticed her eyes were glassy. If I had to guess, I'd say she was on more than just booze, seemed like she'd popped a fair amount of uppers too.

"Uhhh we have an office around back, Eye-uhh my friend Rich here will take you to the office to sit down for a minute. Rich, this is Ashley Scanlon, can you take her Tommy's office and get her some water?" Eyeball had joined me and I nodded toward Ashley. His eyes were wide, he hadn't seen much of her drunken display last time and was not expecting to see this country club elite looking such a disaster.

Ashley smiled and stepped toward me. "Oh Ace you are such a dear! Your friend is lovely too, thank you for your concern." She took Eyeballs hand and he led her to the office. I watched them walk away but was interrupted by someone tapping on my arm. The older girl had gotten out of the car and approached me. She looked absolutely terrified.

"You ok?" I looked down at her. Kids kind of freaked me out. This one freaked me out more than most, staring up at me with these wide brown eyes looking like she'd seen a ghost.

The girl shook her head. "You can't let her take us out of here, she was talking all crazy...she knew she was going to drive into the pump...I think she wanted to kill us." Her eyes were icy and cold as she uttered her words. A pit grew in my stomach as I realized that Ashley's stunt was the kamikaze mission I had suspected and the pit grew larger as I understood that the girls knew that the car wreck wasn't an accident. This was bad, this was very very bad. And I somehow just got stuck dealing with it.

"She umm told me she swerved to avoid a dog…" I didnt know what else to say so I decided to continue her mother's lie.

She snorted. "Are you stupid? You believe her? She's wasted, drunker than I've ever seen her before. I need to call my sister."

Her sister. The fucking homecoming queen. She was going to love coming back to the garage to deal with that. I thought about Ashley's last performance and could only assume that today's might outdo her "Vote for Rory" spectacle.

"Okay, there's a phone inside. Do you know the number?" I looked down at her. She narrowed her eyes. "Do I look like a kindergartener that doesn't know her own home number? God you aren't too bright." She rolled her eyes and whipped around back to the car to get her younger sister. I realized this kid was probably about the same age as Lachance and Eyeball's brother, this younger generation clearly had a serious attitude problem.

The little one had to crawl over the seat to exit the car. I took a better look at the smashed up rear end. The car was definitely totalled, whole back passenger's side was completely smashed up. I noticed the gas tank was on the driver's side, with the speed they were going and how fast the car spun out, if the other side of the car had hit the garbage can there was a chance the fuel tank could have exploded. I looked at the two kids standing next to the wreck and wondered if they had a clear sense of how they had just dodged death twice in ten minutes. I walked toward the shop and heard their footsteps behind me. I swung open the door and they stepped up to the counter.

"Are you Ace Merrill?" The older one looked up at me. I nodded. Her eyes grew wide. I guess my reputation preceded me. The little one looked confused. "Kendall do you know him? Who is he?" The older one shot the little one a death stare. "I'll tell you later Liv, just be really quiet he doesn't like kids." That wasn't a good enough answer for the little one.

"Ace Merrill why don't you like kids?" The little one earnestly asked me. Her older sister slapped her hand across her mouth. "Olivia! I told you to shut up seriously!"

I couldn't help but laugh. "You kids are fine. I'm not here to scare you." I put the phone on the counter in front of the older one. She looked up at me nervously but picked up the receiver and started to dial.

"Rory thank god!" Kendall yelled out when her sister answered the phone and I sighed with relief that she got in touch with someone. "You have to come get us, mom crashed the car and almost killed us! We're at the gas station! hurry!" My heart stopped, eyeball hadn't emerged from the office yet. I thought of Ashley Scanlon running her finger up and down my chest and cringed, hoping to god Eyeball wasn't taking advantage of the situation.

"We're here in the shop with Ace Merrill...yeah Ace Merrill...he's being nice I guess though….umm okay I guess I'll ask him." Kendall held the phone out to me. "My sister wants to talk to you." Great. How the hell did I get myself into this situation? This family is totally fucked.

I held my ear to the phone. "Ace? What happened? Kendall was all over the place is everyone okay?" Rory's voice was hurried and stressed.

"Kids seem fine. If you can get down here I would though…" i trailed off. I didn't want to get into gory details with the kids sitting there.

"Of course, where's my mother?"

Eyeball still hadn't reappeared. "She's in the office, There's a couch there hopefully she's lying down-."

"Okay, I'm on my way...thank you I'm so sorry to put you out like this." I heard the phone click.

The girls looked up at me. "Your sister is on her way."

"Can you check on Mommy?" The little one stared up at me with her big brown eyes.

I paused. I didn't want to leave the kids alone in the shop and I definitely couldn't bring them back to the office. "Eyeball is taking good care of her, just wait here for your sister."

"Eyeball Chambers? That boy was Eyeball chambers?" Kendall's jaw dropped open.

I laughed. "Listen kid, I get you've heard our names before and probably some not no nice stuff, but have I given you a reason to think I'm going to mess with you?"

Her eyes narrowed. the little one perked up. "Yeah Kendall, you're being mean to him he's been nice to us."

Kendall's eyes softened. "I guess..I mean just cause you hit some boys doesn't mean you'd hurt a girl." I was starting to feel slightly guilty that this little girl thought there was a chance that I was going to put her in the hospital like I had with Chambers...but i brushed it off and credited to teenage girls being overly dramatic. 

Moments later a red dodge coronet screeched into the lot. Out popped Rory Scanlon, who made a beeline for the shop. Her sisters ran to her.

"Oh my god are you guys okay? I saw the car!" She knelt down and her sisters threw their arms around her.

"It was so scary! Mommy was talking crazy and almost hit the tank and swerved last second and just hit the trash can. I hit my head but Kendall says I'll live and that's Ace and he's been nice to us even though Kendall was being mean to him!" Olivia rambled excitedly and Rory's looked up and her eyes met mine. Her eyes were wide, I could see her shoulders rising and falling quickly. Her heart was racing, it was clear she was quickly realizing how fucked up this situation was.

She stood up. "Girls I need to talk to Ace for a minute, can you go sit in the car?" They nodded and bounced to the dodge. This girl was about to ask me questions I didnt want to answer. I shouldn't have let the girls call her, I should have called the cops and been done with it. But nope, Ace you let yourself get manipulated by a 12 year old and now here you are. Might as well get it over with. I stepped into the shop, Rory followed and I shut the door behind us. I flipped the open sign around to closed and shut off the light on the sign. The last thing I needed was a line of people at the pump next to Ashley Scanlons totalled Camaro.


	9. the gas station again

_Rory_

My mind was racing. Theresa and I had blown off school that day and spent the morning at the diner in Durham. I hung out at her house until she had to head to her grandmother's house for the holiday. I returned home to an empty house, I hadn't seen Ashley all day and i tried not to kick myself for not seeing what her mental state was before leaving the girls with her. The phone rang as I walked into the house and my heart sank when I realized it was Kendall. I sped to the station in less than five minutes and I almost puked when I saw Ashley's Camaro twisted around the cement barrell. She was inches from the pump. Inches from incinerating herself, my sisters and anyone else who had been around...and now I stood with Ace Merrill, who looked at me like he had seen a ghost.

"You have to tell me everything that happened."

He had trouble making eye contact with me. I knew in my gut that it was bad, but his aversion to me made my mind think the worst.

My eyes narrowed at his prolonged silence. "Listen, I've put you in a terrible situation and I know this is the last thing you want to deal with. But you've had the pleasure of seeing my fucked up mother in action before and you clearly did something to get my sisters away from her and I need to know what's going on."

He sighed and rubbed his eyes. Still nothing. "Look, you don't have to be delicate about your words here. I know she's shitfaced, you know she's shitfaced. I'll ask it to you plain, do you think she came in here with the intention of driving into the gas tank?"

His eyes met mine. "I thought it when I saw her swerve in, yeah. And your sister told me that was the case when I got them out of the car."

I felt like I had been stabbed in the gut. My mother had nearly killed my sisters. A few inches closer to the gas pump or if the fuel tank on the Camaro has hit the cement barrel with enough force then the car would have blown and they all would have died inside.

His words about Kendall rang in my brain. "What did my sister say?"

He winced and I rolled my eyes. Upon catching my eye roll, he brought his blue eyes back to mine. "She said your mother was talking crazy and that she thought she was going to drive them all straight into the pump. She said something that made your sister think this was all intentional."

I almost threw up. I felt dizzy and reached for the counter to steady myself. Ace had jumped toward me, I probably looked like I was going to faint. His arm slid around my waist as I steadied myself on the counter.

"I'm sorry you had to hear that from me." We stood there for a moment, his eyes burning into mine. I bet when Ace Merrill woke up this morning he never expected that he'd get roped into something like this. My mind drifted back to our first awkward interaction at the gas station and how oddly comforted I was by his appalled reactions to Ashley's performance. I guess a part of me was happy to hear this story from someone who wasn't going to sugar coat it.

"Where is she?" I snapped back to reality.

He cringed again. "I had eyeball take her to Tommy's office, there's a couch in there…" he trailed off.

I hadn't noticed Eyeball walking around the gas station and surmised he was still in there with my mother. I think we both knew there was a decent chance that Eyeball wouldn't have the self control Ace did when Ashley threw herself at him.

I looked out to the car and saw the girls chatting in the backseat. I couldn't leave them in there. If Ashley was in the shape I expected, I'd have to take her home separately… but I couldn't leave them sitting around a gas station...fuck what was I gonna do?

"I can lock up the shop if you want the girls to wait in here. from what I saw earlier, I don't think you want them to see her like this." Aces voice interrupted my panicked thoughts and I sighed, relieved he was trying to help. I had never really spoken to this kid but good god was I grateful he was here. He owed me less than nothing and yet he tried to help me.

I nodded and I walked out to the car to grab the girls. "I might be a few minutes...do you girls want a coke? you can hang in the shop while I get mom." Kendall seemed to understand the severity of the situation and motioned to Olivia to follow me. It broke my heart that Kendall had a sense of what was going on, no kid her age should have to deal with heavy stuff like this.

The girls shuffled back into the store and I dug through my purse for money for cokes. "On the house." Ace reached in and grabbed two cokes from the machine.

"No I have money-." He shot me a look as if to remind me I had more pressing issues.

I turned to the girls. "I'm gonna go take care of mom, you guys cool here for a minute by yourselves?"

"Can Ace stay? He's nice!" Olivia chirped.

I was taken aback, as was Ace. I don't think the kid notorious for beating the piss out of four middle schoolers got that kind of reaction from little kids often. "Ace has to come with me, but I'll be back soon, okay?" She smiled. Kendall rolled her eyes. "We're Fine here. Go deal with Ashley."

I followed Ace out the door as he locked up. "I'm so sorry-."

"Stop apologizing, I feel like I'm gonna owe you one in about two minutes when we inevitably see Eyeball taking advantage of your mother."

"Eyeball isn't to blame. This is all Ashley, can't blame him for seizing the moment." I muttered. We walked around back to the office. Ace tried the door and it was locked. He banged his fist on the door.

"Uhhh one sec! tommy is that you?" Eyeball nervously stuttered on the other side of the door.

"Nah it's me, what the fuck is going on in there?" Ace yelled.

"Shit ace cover for me okay?" The door swung open and a disheveled Ashley Scanlon appeared as Eyeball pulled his pants up. My eyes went wide, but not as wide as Eyeballs, who would have probably appreciated heads up that ace had me in tow.

My mother's dress was unbuttoned, her bra exposed. Her shoes and purse were in a pile on the floor. I was shocked she was even standing.

"Ace darling! So good to see you! You didn't tell me your friends were just as handsome as you." She reached out and squeezed his hand. I winced at the thought of where her hand had just been.

Ashley noticed me standing next to Ace, her eyes unsteady. "Oh wonderful, my ungrateful daughter here to ruin all my fun." She slurred as she collapsed on the couch. I knelt down next to her and tried to button her dress as she slapped my hand away.

Ace dragged Eyeball outside and left me to deal with my mother. I looked into her eyes, they were hollow and empty. I could only begin to fathom the combination of booze and pills that ran through her system. I took a deep breath and tried to figure out what to do. Part of me wanted to call the cops on her right there, but I knew a scene would make everything worse. I had to find a way to get her home and get the girls home without causing any more drama...I wish I knew where to begin…


	10. how did i get myself into this

_Ace_

I glared at Eyeball. "Jesus Christ man what the fuck are you thinking?" I pulled him out of the office and shut the door.

"Dude I don't know it just happened! She threw herself at me what was I supposed to do?"

"Not take her into the bathroom and fuck her!"

Eyeballs eyes grew big. "No man it didn't go that far...i mean I didn't-."

"The woman is clearly shitfaced and off her rocker and you think it's a good idea to take advantage?" Eyeball went white. "Man if you'd have seen her you'd know this was not on me. It was all her. She said some messed up stuff, man I didn't know what to do. I figure with someone that unstable you just follow their lead. Man I think she was really trying to end it…" his eyes were wide.

"Yeah I got that impression too."

Eyeball rubbed his face. "Heavy shit man, I just feel bad the prom queen has to deal with this."

My mind snapped back to Rory on the other side of the door. I wondered how the hell she was going to manage getting her mother and sisters all home in one piece. The look in her big brown eyes when she first arrived was etched in my mind and despite the completely fucked up timing I couldn't help but notice how hot she was. Maybe it was the lack of pussy I'd just been discussing with Eyeball, maybe it was the complete insanity of the situation with her mother and the car wreck, but something inside me started to soften and I realized that this situation would probably go easier if the Homecoming Queen wasn't handling this alone.

"Eye, go see if you can move her car around to one of the empty bays. It's on display for the whole town to see where it is. When you're done that, the sisters are in the shop. Go sit with them and give them whatever candy or soda they want, I'll figure out how we're gonna get them out of here."

"You want me to babysit the Scanlon sisters?"

"try not to tell them you just fucked their mother, alright?" Eye shot me a dirty look as he jogged over to Ashley's car. I went back toward the office and cracked the door open.

"Get your hands off me! Can't you just leave me be!" I heard Ashley's slurred voice. "We have to get you home, I'll pull my car around. You just need a shower and to get to bed." Rory's words were hollow. She knew her mother needed a lot more than that.

"Ace darling please talk some sense into my horrible disappointment of a daughter." Why do I keep getting dragged deeper and deeper into this? I wish I had the sense to just call the cops when she hit the barrel. This wouldn't be my problem then. Or maybe it would have. The Cops coming to Tommy's wouldn't be good for anyone, god knows what kind of weight he had stashed in the house.

"Ashley she's just trying to help. She wants to get you home alright." I stepped closer. Ashley laughed. "I'm not going home she can't make me go back there. I'm the adult and she's the child!" She rambled nonsensically.

Rory stood up. She looked like she'd just gone a dozen rounds in the ring against a prize fighter. She pulled me aside. "Listen I don't want to put you out anymore than I already have but-." She cut off before she finished her sentence. I gathered she stopped before she said "i need your help."

There was the look again. Same face that had been etched in my mind moments before. Fuck. I'm gonna get roped into some bullshit here. I locked eyes with her and tried to ignore a weird flutter in my stomach as I did. She took a deep breath and continued. "I can't let them see her like this...can I leave the girls here for a little bit so I can get my mom home? I know you aren't a babysitting service but everyone I can call is gone for the holidays and I…" she trailed off. I could see a million thoughts running through her mind.

"Deal with your mother. The girls can stay here or I can drive them home later if you want…"

Good going Merrill, get yourself in deeper. I don't think anyone would ever mistake me for being an overly compassionate kind of guy, I'd picked a hell of a day to start doing favors for my fellow man. I'd been in some fucked up situations in my day, but I'd always managed to turn the other cheek and look out for myself. Something about this was different. These goddamn Scanlon girls and the big brown eyes they'd stare up at you with made it near impossible to keep them hanging. My mind flashed back to Amanda telling me I'd gone soft, in this moment I had to admit she wasn't wrong.

Almost like clockwork, she stared at me with those chocolate brown eyes. "I can't ask you to do that." "You didn't ask. Your mother is a ticking time bomb and you need to diffuse it. You can't do that and cart around those kids." She bit her lip. "And don't thank me, figure this shit out. Do you want me to pull your car around?" She nodded, as if in a daze.

She reached into her bag and pulled out her keys.

"Alright mom, Ace is bringing the car around and then we'll get going." "I told you Lauren I'm not going anywhere." Ashley sat defiant on the couch. "Mom please, you just need to get home." "Is your father there?" "He wasn't when I left. I wont even tell him about the car, I'll tell him you got hit. We can cover it up it can be our secret." The desperation in her voice grew with every word she spoke.

Ashley's eyes narrowed. She looked tempted by the proposition but doubtful of Rory actually doing it. She sat in thought for a moment and I saw her face turn. A wicked grin painted her face.

"You're lying to me. Just like you lied about breaking up with Nick and how you lied about quitting cheerleading. You are the reason I'm like this. I gave you everything and you've done nothing but spit in my face for it. Your sisters suffer because of you." Rory took it on the chin, it was clear this wasn't the first time her mother had tried to cut her like this.

"You did this to yourself. Dont blame me." Rory stood up, staring coldly down at her mother. The comment agitated Ashley who popped up and stood with her face inches from her daughters. It was impossible not to notice how much the two women looked alike, especially with matching looks of defiance on their face.

"You're lucky i saw Ace when I did. I was headed right for that gas pump. Those idiot sisters of yours wouldn't have been missed. Seeing these lovely young men made me stop, would have been a shame to see them get hurt because of you." Ashley continued to push her daughter and fill her mind with thoughts that everything that was happening was her fault. I'd expect any other girl to be crying in the corner hearing their mother speak to them like that, but not Rory. She was cold as ice and barely flinched at her mother's harsh words.

"Well I'm glad sucking some high school boys dick was motivation enough to stop you." Ashley flew into a rage. I saw her wind up with an open hand to slap Rory across the face. I jumped toward them but I didn't need to. Rory had unexpectedly quick reflexes. She caught her mother's hand in her own before her palm hit her cheek and grabbed it tightly. I was impressed, I'd been in my fair share of fights and had gone toe to toe with guys who didn't have reflexes like that. "You hit me once and got away with it, it wasn't going to happen twice." Rory snapped.

Ashley moaned as Rory wrestled her down on the couch. "Get the car Ace!" She yelled as her mother thrashed beneath her. Shocked, I backed out of the room and headed over to the car. As I ran to Rory's car, I peeked into the shop and saw the girls giggling at Eyeball, who looked like he was midway through some crazy story. Luckily he distracted them enough that they didn't see me hop into Rory's car and drive it around back.

I headed back into the office where Rory continued to wrestle her mother on the couch. "Ace thank god you're back! Get this wild animal off me! I swear I didn't raise her to behave this way!" "time to go home Ashley, why don't you let me help you to the car?" I was desperate to diffuse this situation, the charm had worked on Ashley before I hoped it would work again. Ashley managed to push Her daughter off her and was still for a moment. She looked up at me and raised her hand to me, as if to ask me to help her up. I took her hand and helped steady her to her feet. I handed Rory her keys. She opened the door and ran outside to open the passenger door. I helped Ashley get in the car. "You're such a gentleman. Thank you for treating me like a lady, and not like a wild animal like my daughter does." She shot Rory a glare as she slammed the door.

I stood face to face with Rory. The image of her smiling up from the homecoming ballot flashed in my head. It was hard to believe in this moment that it was the same girl standing before me.

"Can you give me a half hour to get her home? I can get her cleaned up and give her something to sleep. Hopefully the girls won't have to see anything else…" she trailed off.

"Yeah they seem like they're having a great time with Eyeball, so I think they're ok considering everything."

"I don't know what I would have done if you weren't here." Fuck those big brown eyes again. Even in all of this insanity, there was no denying the girl was beautiful. "Don't worry about it. Might need you to back up this story to tommy when he wonders why we unexpectedly closed…"

"Shit I'm sorry. I'll do whatever I need to do to make this right by you, I swear."

I shook my head. "Just get her out of here." She mouthed thank you as she walked to the car. I watched her drive off and hoped she'd get home alright. I stood out back and lit a cigarette and started to process what happened. Ashley could have blown up the whole place, i could be dead right now. I slowly walked over to the shop, preparing myself to deal with the Scanlon sisters.

I unlocked the shop and the girls were giggling up a storm. An hour ago they'd almost been killed and now they're all hopped up on sugar and joking around with eyeball. "Ace is back!" Olivia bounced around.

"Eye, get the sign back on. We gotta open back up now that things are cleared out." He leaned over and flipped on the sign and I turned the "closed" sign back to "open." Explaining this to Tommy was going to be interesting.

"Where's Rory?" Kendall shot me a worried look.

"She took your mom home."

"Is she coming back for us?" Olivia's face fell.

"She asked me to take you home in a little bit. She wanted to get your mom to bed."

The girls exchanged looks. Kendall took a deep breath. "She's alone with mom?"

"Yeah until I take you home."

Kendall furrowed her brow. "We can't leave Rory alone with her we have to go now."

"We'll go soon, she just wanted to get your mom settled."

"You don't understand. I know you think I'm just a dumb kid but I know what's happening here. My mom is all messed up and if she almost just drove into a gas pump with us in the car there's no reason she wouldnt try to hurt Rory. You have to help us!"

This kid was truly terrified. The little one started crying again. Fuck! how did I get myself into this!?

Against my better judgement, I grabbed my keys. "Eye you good here? I'll be right back." Eyeball nodded, clearly dazed after the afternoons events.

Kendall sighed in relief. I walked out the door with the girls in tow. If anyone in castle rock saw the sweet little Scanlon kids getting in Ace Merrill's car, the cops would get a phone call. Little would they know the little ones were probably better off than her older sister right now.

The girls jumped in my car and we drove out of the lot. I took the turn up to Castle View as Kendall directed me to their house. I wasn't surprised to see a gigantic White House with a red coronet parked crookedly in the driveway. It was easily one of the biggest houses on the hill, complete with a backyard overlooking the country club. From the outside it looked perfect, but I knew the real situation on the inside was anything but.

I parked on the street in front of the house and turned to the backseat to look at the girls. They were pretty quiet on the ride, you could almost feel them mentally preparing themselves for what was ahead. We walked up to the unlocked front door and I took a deep breath. I hoped I'd given Rory enough time to calm her mother down.


	11. falls apart

_Ace_

"Jesus Christ they're back already." I heard Rory's panicked voice from upstairs. "Stay there and calm down, do not move Mom seriously!."

The little one moved toward her oldest sisters voice and I instinctively grabbed her shoulder.

"Why don't we give your sister a minute..." Rory appeared at the top of the stairs, white as a ghost.

"Rory what's happening?" The older ones lip trembled as she asked a question I was certain she didn't want to hear the answer to.

Rory shuffled down the stairs and put her arm around her sister and guided her into the kitchen. She knelt down in front of her sisters. "Listen, mommy's still not feeling well, I need you girls to promise to stay down here okay? Ken, make Liv a snack and go sit in the living room okay?" Rory's voice cracked as she guided the girls into the kitchen.

Her eyes met mine and her gaze stung me. She grabbed my forearm and nudged me toward the hallway. "I am so sorry to put you out like this..." a crash from upstairs interrupted her. The girls jumped up "Stay downstairs!" Rory yelled as she bolted up the stairs.

Kendall ran up to me, "please go help her, I know it's really bad up there she shouldn't be alone. I'm scared." Ahhh fuck. All I wanted to do was get out of that house but the terror in that little girls eyes made me stay. One more crazy move and I'd call the cops and it would all be over.

I quietly walked up the grand staircase. "What have you done?!" Rory's voice rang out from behind the slightly ajar door. I stepped closer and peeked inside.

Shards of a crystal vase were smashed all over the floor. It was then I noticed some of the glass was sitting in small pools of blood.

"None of you care what I've sacrificed. Your father is disgusted by me. You defy me at every turn. Your sisters are pathetic idiots who will never be able to achieve what you could have before you decided to throw it away. I'd rather die than watch you waste all of the work I put in." I leaned in and saw Ashley covered in blood. She had smashed a vase on the doorframe into the adjoining bathroom and used the shards to hack away at her wrists and forearms. She was slumped against the doorway, blood quickly soaking her clothing and the carpet around her. Rory grabbed towels from the bathroom and knelt at her mother's side. She was shaking as she feebly tried to wrap the wounds.

"You were my shining achievement, beautiful and elegant and you've never appreciated everything I've done for you!" Ashley tried to yell, but I heard her voice grow weaker. Fuck it. I opened the door and scanned the room for a telephone, this had gotten out of control. Before I could find one, I saw Rory run over to the bedside table and picked up the phone. Her shirt and jeans were stained with blood. "Don't bother calling your father, he couldn't be bothered." Ashley weakly called out. I stood there frozen.

"I'm not calling Dad I'm calling an ambulance!"

A maniacal laugh rang out "darling the blood is just for show, the bottle of pills I swallowed while you were doting on your pathetic sisters will do the job." Rory quickly yelled into the phone then hung up and ran to her mothers side. She pushed her away.

"Why are you doing this? You could have just left if you were unhappy why did you do this?"

I felt sick to my stomach. I felt gross for listening to this, but didnt feel right leaving either. I watched Rory wrap new towels around her mothers wrists. Ashley was weakening But continued to push her daughter. "You deserve to suffer, you ruined my life and it's Time you pay." I took a deep breath and Rory's eyes darted up to mine. An expression of shame and anger painted her face.

A loud bang on the front door interrupted the moment and Rory mouthed "the girls, please keep them away from here." I ran downstairs as the paramedics entered the house and marched up the stairs. Kendall instinctively jumped up after them but I caught her and held her back. The tiny girl thrashed in my arms as I walked her back to the living room where her younger sister sobbed in the couch.

How the fuck did I end up here? I sat down on the couch and the little one unexpectedly cuddled up to me and cried into my shirt. I was silent.

A couple cops walked in the open door and immediately looked at me on the couch with the kids. "Ace Merrill, do I even want to know what you're doing here?" The cop sneered at me like I was here to rob the place.

"He saved our lives, that's what he's doing here. Go help my sister!" Kendall had jumped up from her seat and pushed the cops toward the stairs. A bewildered look appeared on officer mitchells face as he stepped toward the staircase.

"Go check on Rory, I won't follow you I swear." Kendall stared at me and motioned toward her mother's bedroom. Reluctantly I stood up and followed the officers up the stairs. I stopped behind them at the entrance to the master bedroom and watched them remove their hats.

A paramedic had just stood up and shook his head. Ashley laid their lifeless, her head in her daughters lap. Rory was soaked in blood. The other paramedic put his hand on her shoulder and she slapped it away. She looked up and made eye contact with me. Her eyes were empty and I noticed her body trembling. "Get her off me." She whispered as the medics knelt and pulled Ashley"s body off Rory's lap. She slowly stood up and stumbled toward me. "Are they alright? Did they hear..."

officer Mitchell cut her off and started peppering her with questions. She ignored him and walked closer to me, again grabbing my forearm and guiding me out of the room.

"Miss Scanlon-" she whipped around. "Jesus christ, I'm sitting here soaked in my mother's blood. I literally just watched her die. do you think you could give me five minutes before we do this?"

The room went silent. "Merrill, I need a smoke." She walked out of the room and beckoned me into another bedroom. Officer Mitchell's eyes didn't leave me as I followed her down the hall. I reached into my pocket and pulled out my smokes, her shaking blood soaked hand pulled one out of the box. I grabbed one too and took out my lighter.

Rory sat on the edge of the bed, silently dragging on the cigarette. "I'm sorry I dragged you into this. I didn't realize it was going to be this bad." Her eyes focused in on me.

I had no idea what to say or do. She placed her cigarette down on the bedside table and unexpectedly stood and removed the blood soaked shirt. She stood there in her bra and stained jeans and fumbled through her drawer for a clean top. I felt like I was on an LSD trip or something. An hour ago I was pumping gas at the station, now I'm up on the view in the homecoming queens bedroom while she undressed, moments after her mother's suicide.

She seemed completely indifferent to my presence and I admit, I couldn't help but stare as she slipped on a T-shirt and dug around her closet for a clean pair of jeans. She slid off the blood soaked jeans and I couldn't look away. The girl was beautiful and moved with confidence. And her ass wasn't half bad either.

She picked up her cigarette and took another drag.

"I'm sorry." It was all I could muster.

"For what? Checking out my ass?" Her snarky comment caught me off guard, but I saw her lips try to hold back a smile.

"I was referring to what happened next door. You undressed in front of me, can't blame a man for looking."

She looked at me and burst out laughing. "Is this not the most fucked up surreal thing you've ever seen?"

Her laughter initially made me uncomfortable, but I softened into a weak smile. "Yeah I didn't expect to end up watching you undress until I at least bought you a milkshake or something." She laughed harder. "You have no idea how bad I needed that. I feel like I haven't laughed in months…" she trailed off as the situation on the other side of the door clicked into focus.

She took another drag of her cigarette. "It really happened didn't it." She looked down to the pile of blood soaked clothes on the floor and then looked at me. I saw the color drain from her cheeks.

"It was utterly fucked up. She was utterly fucked up. I'm sorry you had to go through that."

She stared at me for a minute. I winced slightly as I realized that I had officially added Rory Scanlons brown eyes and perfect ass to my list of weaknesses. "Thank you for saying that, for just calling a spade a spade. I feel like that's the one honest thing I'm going to hear for the next few hours."

She put out her cigarette and took a deep breath and walked toward the door to deal with the cops. She took a few steps and I heard the front door burst open.

"Daddy!" Rory jumped up hearing her sisters yell from the living room. "Fuck. He's home. Cops must have called him." She seemed to snap back into reality and rushed down the stairs to meet her father.

I was left standing in the doorway to her room, face to face with Mitchell and Parker. "So Merrill, we never did get your reason for being here...you harassing the Scanlon girl? What going on here?"

"Gee Officer Mitchell, you've taught me my lesson for trying to be a Good Samaritan. The mother was sauced and nearly drove straight into a gas pump with the kids in the car. She wandered off at the gas station so I called her sister to get them home. She wanted to deal with her mother and asked me to bring home the kids. She'll confirm the story."

"Someone trusted you with their kids?" The officers laughed to each other.

"Clearly it was a crisis situation." I motioned to the bedroom.

Luke and Rory stormed back up the stairs, "how did this happen? Why didn't you call me?"

"Oh gee dad when was I going to do that? When I was pulling her off some teenager at the gas station or when I was trying to stop her from bleeding out?" I felt for the guy in that moment, Rory had an ice cold stare and her words cut deeply.

The cops shuffled uncomfortably in place. "Miss Scanlon I'm so sorry for your loss, do you think you'd be able to tell us what happened?"

"Yeah she tried to kill her daughters and herself and by the grace of god Ace stopped it."

Fuck. Instantly all eyes were on me. It became apparent that her father hadn't noticed me standing there. He was clearly not expecting to see the guy who filled his tank last week to be standing in his daughters bedroom. "We need to go talk to the girls." Rory made a move toward the stairs.

"Miss Scanlon-"

"Jesus Christ Officer with all due respect can you read the room here? Talking to my sisters about what just happened matters a lot more than discussing how Ashley Scanlon downed a bottle of benzos and slashed up her arms." This girl was no joke. She delivered her message bluntly, but with a country club like precision and cut to her words.

"Rory just go talk to the officers, I'll talk to the girls." Her father stepped toward the stairs.

"No. You weren't here. You don't get to make the decisions right now. I'm going downstairs to talk to the girls. You are going to stay here and make sure that mess gets cleaned up so they don't see anything. Come downstairs in ten minutes and you can talk to them then. Then I will make time for our esteemed police force who seem to hell bent on making me relive the last few hours of my life."

The room was silent. I don't think A man alive would have defied Rory Scanlon in that moment. She took the silence as affirmation and she glided down the stairs.

Luke Scanlon took a deep breath and walked into the bedroom, one of the officers behind him. That left me and Mitchell standing uncomfortably in the hallway. I knew what was coming.

"Alright Merrill, time to have a chat." We stepped back into Rory's room and I sat down in the chair at her desk.

"What in the hell happened here and how did you get in the middle of it? You're on probation son, well have to tell the judge about this if there's any funny business going on."

"As I said before, i picked the wrong time to become a Good Samaritan. Ashley Scanlon has come to the gas station drunk a few times over the last few months. Today she was hammered and nearly drove the Camaro into the gas pump, kids in the car and everything."

Officer Mitchell's eyes grew wide. "Where's the car now?"

"Parked our back of the shop, parked it out of the way so people didn't talk."

"How did you end up here?"

"I got Ashley out of the car after she smashed it up and sent her to sit in Tommy's office. I took the girls into the shop to call their sister. Rory came down and her mother was in bad shape so she asked me to take the girls home so she could get Ashley settled. I walked into this situation and then you showed up." I reached for another cigarette.

Mitchell stood there silently. He followed suit and lit a cigarette of his own. "And the girls will corroborate this story?" I nodded. He shook his head. "Ace Merrill unlikely hero I guess. Are you friends with the Scanlon girl?"

I laughed. It hit me that I ended up going out of my way and getting pulled into this mess for a girl I barely knew. "Wouldn't say that. Just in the right place at the right time. Or the wrong place depending on how you look at it." I took another drag of my cigarette. Mitchell stared at me dumbfounded.

A knock at the door interrupted us. A third officer arrived on the scene. I'd assumed there was probably quite a commotion outside and that the full force came out to the Scanlon house. "Mitchell we have a Tom Carter downstairs, says he's Merrill's guardian…"

Shit. Tommy's here. Eyeball must have filled him in. I nodded and Mitchell directed me out of the room. I headed down the stairs and saw Rory holding her sisters on the living room couch. Kendall sat with her head on Rory's shoulder, staring into space while Olivia sobbed into Rory's lap.

Another cop let Tommy in. "Jesus Christ Johnny What the hell happened?" The girls popped up from the couch, Tommy hadn't realized they were right there. I tried to pull him into the kitchen. Rory stood up from the couch. "You guys can use my dads office, come this way." Tommy and I followed Rory down the hallway and into a room behind the kitchen. She stopped and looked at me and then moved her eyes to Tommy. "Don't be too hard on him, he saved lives today. Send us a bill for the garbage can." She motioned to a bar cart in the corner. "Oh and have a drink, you've earned it." She smiled weakly, turned away and closed the door behind her.

Tommy's jaw was on the ground. "Eyeball told me some kind of story but I didn't believe it. Something tells me the truth is more wild than anything I'm imagining."

I started from the beginning and filled Tommy in. Partway through the story, we decided to take Rory up on her offer and Tommy poured each of us a scotch from Luke's bar cart.

"Well fuck me Johnny, you saved those girls lives."

I shook my head. "Don't put that on me. I was in the right place at the right time I guess."

"You should have just called the cops."

"Thought about it, but those kids were terrified of their mother. I felt for them, wanted to make sure they were okay."

Tommy laughed. "You gave four kids their age a beating for the ages a year ago and now you're rescuing them. You've come full circle kid."

A knock at the door interrupted us. Rory peeked her head in. "Hey, sorry to bug you."

"We're the intruders here." Tommy smiled. Rory weakly smiled back. She looked exhausted, but hadn't looked like she'd shed a tear.

"You guys can hang as long as you like, it's no trouble. I just wanted to let you know to leave out the side door through the kitchen. The neighbors are all over the front door and I don't want anyone harassing you. Cops are trying to get them out of here but might be a few minutes." I realized this was going to be front page news. The last thing I needed was the world knowing I was here when this all went down.

"Ace can I talk to you a minute?" Her voice interrupted my thoughts. Tommy got the cue and stepped into the hallway.

"I don't even know what to say." She walked over to the bar cart and poured herself a drink and plopped down on the chair Tommy was sitting in. "I know what you're gonna say, you aren't gonna want to make a big deal of this. But I owe you bigger than I could ever repay. I'm going to make this up to you." Her brown eyes were serious.

"Don't worry about it."

"No. This isn't negotiable. I'm gonna need some time to deal with this shit but I will find a way to make it up to you." She stood up and walked over to me. "Don't worry I'm not going to hug you and make this weird, I just wanted to thank you again. You saved my sisters lives and I won't ever forget that." She touched my arm and smiled weakly as she walked out of the room.

Tommy reentered a minute later. He raised an eyebrow. "You and the princess friends now?"

"Not exactly. She wants to make it up to me I guess."

"She does owe you man. She'll probably offer you some of daddy's money, you'd be dumb not to take it." I wondered if that were what she was thinking when she made the offer.

"Poor fucking kids man, some shit thanksgiving they'll be having." Tommy shook his head. I had completely forgotten thanksgiving was tomorrow. I took another sip of the scotch, that bottle was probably worth more than my car. My mind drifted to Rory, the girl had been through the wringer. I couldn't help but remember the way she laughed when we were in her room earlier. She seemed almost relieved. Not that I blamed her, my glimpse behind the gilded gates of Camelot proved that no ones life is perfect, not even the homecoming queen.


	12. no one tells you how much stays the same

**Rory**

I told my sisters that my mother had died of a broken heart. It was the only thing i could come up with at the time. I couldn't look them in the eye and say she had violently taken her own life, even though I knew it was only a matter of time before they figured it all out.

I told them that she was sad and lonely and had made some bad choices on how to deal with it. Olivia sobbed as I told her that her mother was dead, but Kendall didn't crack a tear. She just stared past me. I think for a long time I tried to ignore how aware of my mother's situation she was, but her cold stare made it evident that this wasn't a gigantic shock to her.

I stressed to them how important it was for them to know that I was there for them, and if they ever had feelings or problems they felt were too big to deal with that they could always come to me. We had suffered a loss, but this wouldnt break the Scanlon girls. I wanted to say that if they had been able to deal with Ashley when she was alive, that handling her passing would almost be easier, but I knew speaking ill of her would just make things more confusing for them. Putting my own feelings into this wasn't the right thing for my sisters.

My father was no help. When he finally entered the room to talk to them he just babbled about how much their mother loved them and how this had nothing to do with them. I saw Kendall roll her eyes. She had been inches from incineration the day before and she knew that Ashley had long stopped caring about her family.

It wasn't my father's fault he didn't have a clear picture of the day before, that was all on me. He had pulled me aside several times to ask me what happened but I refused to discuss it. The officers had filled him in on the little I had shared, but I knew Luke had questions. Questions I wasn't prepared to answer or discuss with him. I was so tired of him ignoring the issues, pretending like magically one day we'd all be a normal and happy family, I almost felt like he deserved this situation as a punishment.

I made the girls some hot chocolate and tried to wind them down so they could get some sleep. The next few days were not going to be easy and I needed to focus all of my energy on making sure they would be alright.

My father had the unpleasant task of calling my mother's brother to let him know what had happened. Ashley's father had died several years before of a heart attack and her mother lived in Connecticut with my uncle. They had long been in denial over Ashley's instability, throwing words like "eccentric" And "fragile" around to sugarcoat her problems. He was hosting Thanksgiving for his wife's family the next day, but promised to come down on friday. Maybe family being around would be a good distraction for my sisters.

I fell asleep on the couch and awoke early the next morning. It's funny, when something big like this happens, you expect everything to change. As I had fallen asleep the night before, the thoughts of "life will never be the same" raced through my mind. But waking up and staring around the quiet living room, I was shook by how much was going to stay the same. Our home was still our home, we were just missing a person. We'd eventually go back to the same school, same routine, but without Ashley there. I think that was going to be the hardest part, continuing on about our lives knowing that something that had been there everyday was gone forever.

I remembered that it was Thanksgiving Day and shuffled over to the fridge to see if there were any groceries in the fridge to whip up into a makeshift dinner. Not surprisingly, going to the market wasn't a high priority for my mother over her final days and the fridge was practically bare. We had always gone to the Thanksgiving Dinner seatings at the Country Club, Ashley wasn't much of a cook and the stress of planning a holiday meal would have sent her over the edge on her best day. I wondered if I could call over to the club to get some plates to go, I didn't want the girls to feel like they had missed out on a holiday in the midst of all of the craziness.

I put on a pot of coffee and paced around the kitchen, trying to find something to keep myself busy. No matter what I did, Ashley's sick grin as she bled out was stuck in my mind. What she did was completely unfair and despite everything she said, I knew it wasn't my fault. She had been unhappy for a long time and finally the rotation of bitterness, booze and pills caught up with her. I tried to get my father to help to no avail. I tried to keep the girls in line, help out around the house while being the perfect little prom queen she always wanted and it still wasnt enough.

Footsteps on the stairs interrupted my thoughts. I didnt know if i wanted to face my sisters or my father less, so i braced myself for who appeared. It was Luke. He looked terrible. I instinctively felt badly for him, but then I hardened, remembering quickly that he could have done something to help her a million times and never did.

I walked to the cabinet and pulled out two mugs and poured the coffee. I brought one over to him and he grabbed my arm. "We need to talk Rory…" I shook him away. "No we don't. It's over and it is what it is." I turned my back and walked toward the living room. He blocked my path. "You went through something absolutely terrible yesterday and you need to talk about it." I looked up and glared at him. "Maybe that's true. But i'm not talking about it with you. I told you Luke, if something happened then it was on you. You better thank god she turned the wheel at the last second and you're only planning one funeral." I spun away, leaving him there stunned. Most people wouldn't speak that way to a man who was widowered 24 hours ago, but i didnt care. Ashley's instability had gone unaddressed too long and my little sisters almost went down with her. It wasn't okay and I wasnt going to pretend it was.

I walked toward the stairs and saw Kendall sitting on the bottom step. Fuck, she probably heard me snap at our father. "Hey babes, how are you?" I sat next to her and put my arm around her. "I'm okay I guess. It's just weird." She shrugged. Luke walked by and saw us sitting there, he stood there silently for a moment then turned and walked to his study. "Come on, let's go talk in my room." Kendall followed me up the stairs.

She plopped down on my bed and I placed my coffee on the night stand and sat next to her. Her big brown eyes locked with mine. "Can I tell you something and you promise you won't get mad?" Her eyes were filled with worry. "Of course." I took her hand and softly smiled. She took a deep breath. "I'm not upset she's dead Rory, I know that sounds awful. But I feel almost relieved." My heart stopped. I was shocked to hear my 13 year old sister articulate the feelings that had been on the tip of my tongue for the last few hours. "Kendall, you don't mean-." I instinctively jumped in and tried to say the appropriate thing, but stopped myself because I knew it was bullshit and Kendall didnt deserve to be lied to.

I sighed. "Kendall, things were really hard here for a really long time. We've seen alot, we've dealt with some awful things because of her. It's okay to be relieved that part of our lives is over, it's okay to understand that at least she isn't suffering anymore, but if two weeks from now you suddenly miss her or decide you are upset about it that's okay too."

She pursed her lips together. "She could have killed me and Liv, Rory. She stopped caring about us. Knowing I don't have to deal with waking up to her telling me I'm fat or yelling at you is the only thing that's making all of this okay." I pulled her close. "You can't focus on what almost happened, just be glad you're safe now."

"If Ace Merill and Eyeball Chambers weren't there we would have died. Can we make them cookies to say thank you?" Ace and Eyeball. Images of Ace peeking in my mother's bedroom door flashed across my mind. I thought about pulling him out of the room and demanding a cigarette. I thought about how he had managed to cut the tension and make me laugh. I remembered how helpful he was at the gas station, how he had managed to keep my sisters from seeing what happened...I owed him way more than cookies.

"Sure, once we get through the funeral and everything we'll be sure to visit them at the station."

"I was scared when I realized who he was at first...you know what he did right?" Kendalls eyes were wide.

I nodded. "He sent a couple of boys in your grade to the hospital, right?" "Chris Chambers and Gordie Lachance were both in intensive care for four days cause he hurt them so bad. But then he was so nice to me and Olivia...I guess you can't always judge people right?" She looked up at me earnestly.

"It's true. Look at how people see us. Up until yesterday people thought our family had such a great life. Rich dad, nice house, pretty mother...people thought we had it made. We knew differently of course, but Ashley always worked so hard to convince people we had the perfect life. There's always more under the surface, Ken, it's good you've learned that." I smiled.

I heard my bedroom door squeak open and little Olivia appeared in the doorway. I waved her in and she scurried over and jumped on my bed. "How are you munchkin?" I asked, pulling her close for a hug. "I'm sad I guess." She shrugged. "You guess?" "I cried alot last night, this morning i woke up and didnt want to cry anymore."

"Livvie, everything is going to be okay, you know that right?" Kendall grabbed Liv's hand.

"I hope so. It's going to be sad to not have Mommy here anymore but at least she isn't sick anymore...maybe everyone won't fight so much." I felt like i was stabbed in the gut. It realized quickly that i wouldnt have to deal with the grief that i expected from my sisters, but rather their guilt over not being more upset that Ashley's reign of terror was over. Even little Olivia seemed to understand that our mother was in no shape to be a good parent, and that things might operate a little smoother without her outbursts.

I weakly smiled at the girls. "Listen, as far as I can tell this is our chance to show everyone that the Scanlon girls are tough and can get through anything. We're going to have a weird few days, alot of people are going to be in and out of the house and you'll have to get through the funeral. It will be hard and some moments you'll be okay, others you'll be angry, others you'll be sad and feel like crying. Whatever you're feeling, come to me and I promise we'll talk it out. We have each other and we're going to need to lean on one another to get through this, ok?" The girls nodded. I heard Kendall's stomach rumble. "There isn't much in the kitchen, but let's head down there, I'll figure out something to make you for breakfast." The girls hopped off my bed and ran downstairs.

I followed a few steps behind them, but paused when my eye caught the closed door to my parents bedroom. I tried to eliminate the images of what happened behind that door from my mind, but it was easier said than done.

**Short update for now, but wanted to keep this moving. Made some significant edits to beginning of the story and have a good framework for what's to come. Thanks for your support.**


	13. a reputation call

**Ace**

I hadn't slept much the night before. No matter what I did, the images of my afternoon in Castle View replayed vividly in my mind. I stared up at the ceiling for hours, wishing I had a time machine so I could have restarted the day and done everything completely differently. The second that crazy bitch made a beeline for the gas pump I would have called the cops and kept myself out of that shitshow. The day would have gone on like any other and after work I would have gone to Portland with Eye. I'd have picked up some good tail and had a few laughs and life would feel like it always did.

But a time machine didn't materialize in front of me and I was stuck with the images from the prior day flashing through my mind every few minutes. I must have looked like absolute dogshit cause Tommy was overbearing as hell all day. It was a side of him I wasn't used to. I tried to remember that his heart was in the right place as he repeatedly asked if I was okay and if I needed to talk, but all i wanted to do was tell him to shut the fuck up and leave me alone.

"So you think you'll go to the funeral?" Tommy asked me as he shoved mashed potatoes in his mouth. The Blue Point Diner does Turkey Dinners all day on holidays, so Tommy had run over there to grab us takeout to chow on while we watched the day's football games.

I shook my head. "I don't need to trot my ass out for that bullshit."

"Why? You saved those kids' lives, Johnny. What's your deal, scared it'll hurt your reputation?"

"Last thing I need is the whole world finding out I was in the house when it happened. People will say I was there to rob the place or that I tried to fuck the daughter or some bullshit. I'm just trying to stay out of trouble, don't need my name associated with a high profile suicide."

"Yeah, but I bet it would mean a lot to the daughter to see you there, she seemed pretty grateful when we were talking to her."

"I highly doubt Rory Scanlon is thinking about me right now. I'm sure that house is a pretty miserable place right now.." I felt my mind wander up the hill to Castle View and wonder briefly what was going on up there today. Images of the blood soaked carpet and Rory's horror stricken face soon filled my mind. I turned my attention back to the football game on TV and hoped that Tommy hadn't noticed me drift off.

"Whatever Johnny, it's your call whether you go to the funeral or not. I just thought it would be the right thing to do, you know, go and pay your respects." Tommy took a long gulp of beer. "What's your plan for tonight?"

"Heading to Irby's later probably, he usually opens on holidays to give people a place to escape. You?"

"I'm planting my ass right here. We gotta get a new barrel at the pump tomorrow and clean up the rest of the accident. Long day ahead of us, so don't get too fucked up tonight."

I nodded. I knew that I'd probably get sick of Irby's pretty quickly tonight. I was beat from not sleeping and I knew Eyeball had probably run his mouth about the day before, which meant the guys were probably going to pepper me with questions the whole night. At least I could tell them to shut the fuck up about it and they'd listen. If I sat at home Tommy would continue to ask me questions about my feelings and if I told him to shut up he'd probably deck me.

By the time the football game wrapped up, Tommy was snoring on the couch. Without the distraction of football and Tommy, my mind started to drift again. "_I bet it would mean a lot to the daughter to see you…" _Tommy's words about Rory rang in my ear. I thought about our interactions the day before, her shaky voice on the phone when we first spoke...the way she stumbled into my arms when we discussed the car accident...the strength and defiance she faced her drunk mother with in Tommy's office...her terrified brown eyes when we heard the glass vase smash...and maybe most of all the way she looked when she demanded a cigarette and proceeded to practically get naked in front of me…

I tried to snap out of it. It seemed kind of fucked up to think about how hot Rory looked as she pulled off that blood soaked shirt in her bedroom. As I tried to get her image out of my head, our conversation echoed in my brain.

"_It really happened didn't it." _

"_It was utterly fucked up. She was utterly fucked up. I'm sorry you had to go through that." _

"_Thank you for saying that, for just calling a spade a spade. I feel like that's the one honest thing I'm going to hear for the next few hours." _

I sighed and rubbed my eyes. As much as I wished I could have avoided this whole situation, I knew it might have been for the best that I was there. It was probably a good thing that girl didn't have to handle that situation alone. I just hoped to god that she had the good sense to keep my involvement to herself.

I rubbed my temples as if to push the thoughts of the day before out of my mind. The clock above the TV read 7:21 pm. I knew if I spent the rest of the night on the couch I wouldn't stop thinking about it all. I decided to head to Irby's and see if any of the guys were around. I stepped out into the cold air and jumped in my car and started the drive into town.

Irby's was packed with a strange variety of people. A lot of family men trying to escape their in laws that were inevitably in town for the holidays, a pack of sad drunks who clearly had nowhere else to be and a few college kids, home on break and hoping to let loose. No sign of Eyeball or the other guys yet.

Irby never gave me and the guys issues about drinking underage as long as we didn't cause trouble. In a small town our money was as good as anyone else's and Irby wasn't about to leave cash on the table.

"Whiskey straight up and a budweiser." I dropped some cash on the table as Irby poured the whiskey and passed me a beer. I slammed the whiskey down quickly then picked up the beer and took a swig.

"It's crazy from what I hear man...my brother in law was one of the paramedics who responded. He's not supposed to talk about it but I guess the mother slit her wrists right in front of the older daughter. It was horrible. That kid is going to be fucked up for life." Two guys in their mid 30s sitting at the bar next to me were deep in conversation about Ashley Scanlon.

"That's messed up. What did that old broad have to be so miserable about? She was rich, huge house on the view, never had to work a day in her life and she goes and kills herself like that? That's a real slap in the face to us working stiffs, if she thought she had it bad enough to kill herself then we should all go jump off a bridge right now." The two guys chuckled and sipped on their drinks and turned their attention to a discussion about today's football game.

I took another gulp of my beer, slightly relieved that the paramedic hadn't mentioned to his brother that some random hood was standing in the doorway watching the whole thing go down.

A familiar voice caught my ear. "Man I'm glad you made it, didn't know if you'd come down after all the bullshit yesterday." Eyeball walked over and held out my hand to skin it.

I slapped my hand against his and signaled to Irby to bring another round of shots and beers. "Had to get out, Tommy was acting like an overprotective mother all day, wanted me to talk about my feelings and shit." I said as I chugged down the rest of my first beer. Irby slid the drinks across the counter and I threw some cash back at him in return. We grabbed our drinks and headed to a table in the back of the bar.

"Everyone's talking about how that lady ended up dead, Ace..." His eyes were wide as he sat down.

"Keep your fucking voice down. How many people did you tell about what happened yesterday?" I stared coldly at Eyeball, hoping to god that he knew enough to keep his mouth shut.

"Besides Tommy? Didn't mention this to a soul, not even the guys I swear. When Tom came back yesterday and saw the skid marks and the busted up barrel, he had me in a chokehold against the wall until I told him what went down before he went running up the View after you. Wasn't til I closed up the station and met up with Charlie and Billy that we heard the lady had died. We ended up at Mudgett's house, he had a bunch of people there and Sylvia Palumbo showed up and told everyone Rory Scanlon's mother was dead. She lives around the corner from there and said half the neighborhood was hovering outside the house."

"Did my name come up?" I glared at him, hoping if I looked pissed off about the whole thing that it would cover how nervous I was that my name was about to be associated with this bullshit.

"A couple people asked if you were stopping by Mudgetts, but no one seemed to know anything that happened at the garage. All anyone knew for sure was that Homecoming Queen's mom killed herself. Someone said that she shot herself in the head right in front of Rory, someone else said Rory and the sisters came home and she was hanging from a pipe in the cellar. Doesn't seem like anyone really knows specifics." Eyeball's eyes wandered then fixed on me as if to remind me that I knew the specifics.

"It's only a matter of time before the details are all over town. I hope you have the good sense to keep your mouth shut about what we saw at the gas station and about how I ended up at the house. The last thing I need is that kind of attention and the last thing you need is anyone finding out you fucked the old lady shortly before she died." I squinted across the table at Eyeball who had turned a deep shade of red.

"Man I told you, we didn't fuck. She was slurring and had her hands all over me and stuff but I swear to god it didn't go that far. She just rambled on and on about how her best days were behind her. Thank god you banged on the door when you did, it was getting awkward in there. Strange to think that a rich lady like that spent some of her last minutes on earth with guys like us." He shook his head and laughed.

"I don't know why you're laughing. That goddamn pig Mitchell would love nothing more to say that you were fucking her or that I was selling her the drugs that made her go nuts. The second Mitchell walked in that house last night he was way more concerned with why I was there rather than what was going on in that bedroom. Already threatened to call the judge to get me a one way ticket back to Chamberlain." I bit my tongue when I saw Eyeball perk up when I mentioned the bedroom. I wasn't about to share all the details but I had pretty much debunked the hanging in the cellar theory.

"Mitchell has nothing to give you shit about, you did everyone a huge favor. And Rory practically begged you to help her, she'll vouch for you with the cops. You're being paranoid man."

"I didn't waste ten months in Chamberlain to get dragged into this shit and get sent back on some reputation call from a cop who hates my guts."

Chambers rolled his eyes. "Man, you are no fun tonight." He stretched his arms over his head and looked over my shoulder. His eyes scanned the room. "No talent here tonight either. Only two dames in the whole bar, just a room full of sad depressed drunks. We should get out of here and find something good. You need to blow off some steam and have some fun."

He might have a point. I was letting all this stress me out way too much. "What did you have in mind?"

Eyeball shrugged. "Well I hoofed it over here, let's jump in your car and head down Mudgett's, maybe he's got a crew over again tonight." I nodded in agreement and we headed for the door.

We stepped out into the cold and to my car. I backed out of the lot and turned left to head out toward Mudge's place. Eyeball was telling a story about some wasted chick from the night before, but I only caught every other word. Not sleeping the night before had caught up with me and I kept zoning out. I slowed to a stop as we approached a red light in the center of town and noticed a police cruiser with no lights on parked in the bank's lot. I squinted to see if there was someone in it, but couldn't make out anyone. The light turned green and I slowly moved forward. Not five seconds had passed when I saw the blue lights flicker on and pull up behind me.

"God fucking dammit! This is what I was talking about Chambers, I knew these assholes would be on me like stink on shit." I muttered as I pulled over.

"They're just messing with you man, they got nothing on you." I noticed Eyeball shift in his seat and shove his hands deep into his jacket pockets and fumble around. I knew Eye well enough to know that meant he was holding something he probably shouldn't be.

"Fuck man, if you tell me you have something on you…"

Eyeball turned white. "It's cool man, nothing crazy I can lock it down here. Just play it cool and I won't get searched."

"What the fuck is it?" I said through my teeth as I kept an eye in the rear view mirror to see if the cop had gotten out of his car yet.

"Two rolled joints, nothing crazy man I told you. Easy enough to hide, just relax."

I saw a flashlight reflect in my side view mirror and heard someone approach. I grimaced when I saw Officer Mitchell appear to my left.

"Lovely night for a drive, eh Merrill?" Mitchell and his partner Collins leaned down into my window.

"Good evening officers, I know I wasn't speeding. Can you tell me what's earned me the pleasure of this little visit?"

The cops chuckled. "Just checking in on you Johnny, you've had a busy couple of days. You get caught up in all the excitement yesterday and someone let me know that you've spent tonight knocking back a few down at Irby's."

"Just a couple of root beers for me and my friend Rich here." I smiled up at him, wondering if I looked past an off duty cop at the bar.

Mitchell leaned closer. "Don't think for a second I won't breathalyze you. You blow anything over a zero I can pinch you for underage drinking."

I cringed. I was fine to drive, but I knew there was no way I'd blow clean. If he wanted to fuck with me tonight he easily could.

"That would be up to you sir, I'm just trying to get my friend here home. I have to work early

tomorrow morning and want to get back myself." I saw him squint down at me and smirk.

"Well, for safety's sake I'd feel better if we tested you. Step out of the car please." Fuck. This was bullshit. I opened the door and climbed out of the car. "Walk 9 steps, heel to toe and turn." Mitchell barked at me.

This was fucking humiliating. I sighed and stepped as I was told. Mitchell frowned and then asked me to stand on one foot and count to 30. I did as I was told, holding my balance and looking Mitchell straight in the eye the whole time. He scowled as I completed his task and put my foot back down.

"Your turn Chambers. Out of the car."

Eyeball's expression fell. I cringed, knowing Mitchell would see it as a dead giveaway that we were hiding something.

"Got anything on you I need to know about?" Collins looked Eyeball up and down.

"No sir, just trying to get a ride home." Eyeball mumbled.

Collins and Mitchell exchanged glances. "That's quite a mumble, sounds like he could be inebriated. We should probably breath test the both of them to be safe."

"Is that really necessary? I passed your little balance test didn't I? It's freezing out here sir, I think it's illegal to keep minors outdoors for this long." I was quickly losing patience. If they were gonna cuff me then let them cuff me, I didn't need my balls busted too.

Mitchell smirked. "You're right, Merrill. Hop in the cruiser, you guys can come take a ride down to the station and we can discuss all this further. Unless you want me to breath test you right here…"

Eyeball looked at me like a deer in headlights. If they breathalyzed us there and then we could easily get cuffed for underage drinking. If we went down willingly maybe they'd just fuck with us for a little while and let us go home.

"Anything to get us out of the cold, Sir." I coldly replied as Mitchell grabbed my arm and Collins grabbed Eye's and pushed us back toward their cruiser. I took a deep breath as my head was roughly shoved into the backseat and jostled against Eyeball who was pushed in from the other side. Mitchell climbed in the driver's seat and made a u-turn back toward the center of town. I watched my car grow smaller as we drove further away, already dreading the frigid walk back to retrieve it once I let Mitchell bust my balls for a while.

"You boys have certainly had an eventful couple of days." Mitchell caught my eye in the rear view mirror.

"I guess I'm in high demand, what can I say?" I kept my eyes on his. Eyeball shuffled nervously in his seat. His movement broke Mitchell's stare. "Got a problem, Chambers? You're mighty shifty back there tonight."

"No sir, just have to use the bathroom that's all. That root beer I had ran right through me." Eyeball tried to sound confident but if I were Mitchell I wouldn't buy that Eyeball wasn't up to something.

We pulled into the small police station and were jostled out of the car. Each officer kept a hand on our elbows as we were led inside. If Eyeball wasn't holding those joints I'd have called them out for infringing on my constitutional rights or some shit and leading me around like a prisoner without a charge, but I knew mouthing off wouldn't help either of us.

We were led into an interrogation room, same one they held me in the day I got picked up for beating the shit out of Eye's brother and the LaChance kid. Mitchell paced back and forth as Collins directed us to sit down.

Mitchell lit a cigarette. "You talk to the Scanlon girl today?"

"I thought I'd be respectful and give the girl a day to mourn her dead mother."

"Never pegged you as the respectful type. Maybe I got you wrong, Merrill. Or maybe you can explain to me a few things that don't add up."

"Math was never my subject but I'll see what I can do." I smirked up at him.

Mitchell's face pulled into a strange smirk. "Smart little comments like that are going to make this harder on you in the end."

I held up my hands. "Listen, if this is about yesterday I told you what happened. My story ain't gonna change."

"Well I didn't get the chance to ask you yesterday about why Ashley Scanlon's bra was half undone and her undergarments were on inside out when she died?"

I felt Eyeball tense up next to me and I wondered if the little fucker had lied about getting with her. He knew I wouldn't throw him under the bus if he had or if his story was straight. I did remember Rory leaning over and trying to help her mother get dressed in Tommy's office, she didn't get very far before Ashley started slapping at her hands and yelling at her.

"All signs pointed to her being a fall down drunk, maybe she lacked the fine motor skills to properly dress herself?"

"Or maybe your whole little story about Ashley Scanlon's joyride was a cover for what you boys did to her down at the gas station? Pull her into that back office and drug her up so you can have a little fun with a defenseless woman!" Mitchell slammed his hand down on the table. Eyeball jumped. I was worried he was going to say something stupid, but he kept his eyes down and kept his mouth shut.

Mitchell continued. "They're doing an autopsy on her body, going to see if she was assaulted before she died. If she was it might have affected her mental state, could have been the straw that broke the camel's back, the thing that pushed her over the edge and made her do what she did…"

"That's your play? You think we drugged her and messed with her and it fucked her up so bad that she killed herself?" I stared up at him in disbelief. This was a stretch, but given my less than stellar reputation a stretch that some people might believe.

"No way man, it wasn't like that. The lady was shitfaced drunk and probably on some pills too when we found her. If you don't believe us ask Rory, she'll tell you why her mother was half undressed. Don't put that shit on us cause it wasn't like that at all, man. I'll call her myself man, she'll vouch for us." I cringed as I heard Eyeball chime in. So much for him keeping his mouth shut.

"Are we under arrest?" I tried to remain calm. I knew they couldn't hold us without a charge without at least notifying Tommy and Eye's folks, but a pit in my stomach started to grow as I realized that this could solidify my one way ticket back to Chamberlain.

"Nah, you're our honored guests. We're all just hanging out here having a conversation, no big deal." Mitchell smirked. Eyeball shifted nervously next to me and I remembered he still had the joints on him. If we got tossed in a cell we'd probably get patted down and we'd be double fucked for that.

"Can I use the phone then?" I locked eyes with Mitchell again.

"Calling Tommy? We can notify him if you really want us to…"

"Nah I want to call the Scanlon house. Clear this up now."

Mitchell's jaw dropped. "You just said you wanted to give the poor girl a day to mourn and now you're all hot to disturb her? Guess you didn't turn into a gentleman after all."

"Gentleman or not, I know the girl will want this cleared up. The last thing she'd want is people saying things about her mother than ain't true." I tried to push down the smirk I felt forming on my lips, I didn't want to come off too cocky. I hoped to god that my hunch that Rory would come through for us was right.

The cops stared silently at me for a few moments. "Are you going to let me call her or not? Either you let me call over there or you call Tommy and get him down here and let him know that you're holding two minors without a charge." I dug my heels in, if these stupid pricks were going to send me back to Chamberlain then I wasn't going down without a fight.

Mitchell and Collins backed away from the table and walked into the corner of the room. They lowered their voice and spoke quietly, their eyes traveling over to me and Chambers as they talked. After what seemed like an eternity, Mitchell walked back over to the table and Collins walked out of the room.

"Officer Collins is going to call over to the Scanlon house."

"Terrific news. I'm assuming we'll be your guests until she arrives?"

Mitchell's eyes narrowed. "You're a cocky little son of a bitch aren't you? You think a nice girl like that is going to cover for you?"

"I think a nice girl like that is going to tell the truth. And the truth will set us free." I smiled.

Rory Scanlon did say she'd owe me, hope she's ready to pay up...


	14. a tough broad

**Rory**

By 9:39 P.M. I had grown tired of ringing and dinging sounds. The day had been filled with the ring of the phone and the ding dong of the doorbell, hoards of well wishers and gossip mongers who I suspected stopped by in hopes that my mother's body was on display in a case in the front yard filled our stoop all day. The girls had finally fallen asleep and my father had retired to his study, finally getting the message that I didn't much feel like talking.

I was stretched out on the couch when the phone rang. The clock ticked to 9:40 as the second ring sounded through the house. I hopped off the couch and over to the kitchen to answer it, assuming it would be Nick or Theresa checking on me.

"Hello?"

"Miss Scanlon?" Nope, not Nick or Theresa. Wonder what random acquaintance of my father's this was going to be…

"Yes, can I help you?"

"This is Officer Collins from Castle Rock police department, we erm, met yesterday."

"Oh umm, right. What can I do for you? Do you need to talk to my father?" Cops calling back this late? I figured based on everything I told them that this was a pretty open and shut case. Unstable and unhappy woman progressively uses more and more pills and liquor to drown her problems until it kills her...I figured this wasn't the first time something like this had happened...why would the cops be calling again?

"Umm no miss we actually have a few additional questions for you. We were hoping you could come down to the station."

Come to the station? Are they joking? "Umm right now? I already gave a statement I'm not sure what else I can help you with…"

"We have some young men in custody who are persons of interest in your mother's death and they're insisting that you can clear them from any wrongdoing."

I felt a warm tingling sensation inch up my back and down my arms. I clenched my left fist and held the phone's receiver tighter in my right. I took a deep breath as I processed that Castle Rock Police's finest had nothing better to do tonight than harass Ace Merrill. Those fucking assholes were about to get an earful.

"I'll be there in ten minutes." I hung up the phone and darted upstairs. I kicked off my jeans and sweater and threw a dress on. I leaned into the mirror and fussed with my hair and quickly tossed on some makeup. I tried to ignore that I had instinctively taken a page from my mother's playbook and repressed a childhood memory of my mother getting her hair done at the salon before going to court to argue a speeding ticket. "_Lauren darling, always remember to dress your best when dealing with municipal bureaucrats. A lovely dress, a little lipstick and a sweet smile can move mountains in this world_. _And if the sweet smile doesn't work a sharp tongue will._" Her words filled my ears as I finished readying myself. I tried to push her out of my brain as I headed back downstairs.

"Who was on the phone?" My father's voice startled me as I stepped toward the coat closet. I spun around to face him.

His eyes narrowed. "Where are you going at this hour?" I noticed a slight slur to his speech.

"Ummm Nick came home early, I needed to get out of the house." I lied.

"Are his parents home?"

"Umm I think so? I won't be long." I turned again to grab my coat.

"It's a little late, can't he come over here?"

"I really need to get out of the house, I won't be long." I muttered again as I slid my coat on.

My father rubbed his eyes and conceded. I think he knew if he pushed me any further I would have reminded him why we're in this mess in the first place and stomped out anyway. I grabbed my purse and scampered outside to my car. As I settled in, I noticed something shiny on the floor of the passenger's side. I leaned closer and saw that it was my mother's coin purse. I bent to pick it up, thinking about how easily it could have fallen out the day before. I opened it and saw mixed in with a few nickels were several pills. I zipped it shut and shoved it into the glove box, feeling that same tingling anger filling my body once again. I flipped on the lights and backed out of the driveway and tried to shake her image from my mind.

I noticed my hand tremble a bit on the steering wheel. I better get used to this, little reminders of her and little reminders of how messed up she was are going to pop up every day when I least expect them. I took several deep breaths and tried to focus on what I was walking into at the police station.

I pulled into the parking lot and the police station. I pulled a compact mirror out of my purse and fixed my lipstick before walking in. The old officer at the desk was half asleep when hearing the door close behind me startled him awake. "C-can I help you, Miss?"

"She's here for me Ray, thanks." A man I recognized from the day before emerged from an adjoining office. "Miss Scanlon thank you for coming down, I'm so sorry to inconvenience you during this difficult time." He ushered me toward the office. As i stepped toward him, I saw Eyeball and Ace sitting at a table in a room at the end of the hallway. I stopped and stared down at them. Eyeball noticed me first and then tapped Ace's arm. Ace locked eyes with mine and I felt my face grow hot. I felt absolutely sick that those guys were in this situation because of me and my dysfunctional family. I knew in that moment I wasn't leaving that building until I got them out.

A second officer stepped toward me and noticed my eyes on Ace. "Miss Scanlon, Officer Mitch-" He held out his hand but I cut him off.

"I'm sorry, your partner told me on the phone that I was asked down here by two young men who were accused of being involved in my mother's death...I hope the two men in question aren't Eye-Ummm-Rich Chambers and John Merrill?" I nodded toward the room where they sat and tried to quickly correct myself when I used their nicknames.

"Miss Scanlon, if you could please come with us we'll explain." Mitchell put his hand on my back and tried to guide me into the office where Collins sat.

I pushed his arm away. "First of all, please don't touch me. Second of all, answer my question. I thought I was pretty clear yesterday that those two pretty much saved my sisters lives." I kept my stare icy cold and my words curt.

Mitchell flinched and moved his hand from the small of my back. "My apologies. Miss Scanlon perhaps you can clear a few things up and we can explain why Mr. Merrill and Mr. Chambers are here."

I looked at Ace and Eyeball down the hall from me and then back to Mitchell. I nodded as I stepped into the office and took a seat.

"Miss Scanlon, we received some information from the medical examiner that was concerning to us and we were hoping you could shed some light on the situation."

I crossed my ankles and folded my hands in my lap. "Go on."

Mitchell wiped his brow. "I hate to be the one to speak on this, but the medical examiner noticed your mother's undergarments were on inside out when she died. Her brassiere was half unhooked. That coupled with the amount of drugs in her system indicated a possibility of assault and given that two boys with extensive criminal records were present at the time we had every right to bring them in for questioning given this development."

I pursed my lips together, hoping the pressure on my mouth would prevent me from completely exploding. I know that Ace Merrill wasn't exactly an angel, but to try to peg a vicious thing like that on a guy who had just gone out of his way for a couple of girls he barely knew didn't add up. Beating up those middle schoolers wasn't a great move, but it's a far cry from drugging and raping a shitfaced 39 year old woman. I took a deep breath as Mitchell continued.

"With all due respect Miss Scanlon, I don't reckon you run in the same circles as those two and we find it a bit curious as to how they ended up involved."

"Officer Mitchell I thought I explained all of that yesterday but l'll go over it again in case you missed anything. My mother had grown increasingly unhinged over the last several weeks and had been habitually abusing her prescriptions and alcohol. I begged my father to get her help but unfortunately he didn't see how sick she was cause he travels for work all the time. She was hammered when she picked my sisters up from school yesterday and on her way home nearly crashed her car into a gasoline pump. That gasoline pump happened to be at the station where those two worked. She could have blown herself, my sisters and your little prisoners down the hall to kingdom come. My mother had repeatedly flirted with both of them at the gas station for weeks leading up to this and when I went to get her yesterday she had thrown herself at them again. If her underwear was a mess I can assure you she did it to herself. Stop making her the victim here. My sisters are the victims. Those boys in the other room who got roped into this shitty situation are the victims. They didn't ask for this. This is on her, not them."

Mitchell and Collins exchanged uncomfortable looks. I realized they probably hadn't expected me to paint such a blunt picture. Either that or Ashley's trick about dazzling city employees with lipstick and a sharp tongue actually worked.

"With all due respect officers, the last couple of days have been awful enough. I don't need word getting around town about all of this. I hope you'll have the decency to understand that my mother was a troubled woman whose life ended due to her own hands, not because of anything those boys did. I'm sorry if you're having a hard time believing that, I can imagine that from the outside things didn't seem like they would go this way. If you call the house my father will tell you the same...it's been a hard pill for him to swallow and I'm not sure he needs to hear all this right now but I understand if you would rather speak to him..." I felt my voice tremble as I saw Mitchell's expression soften.

"I truly apologize for making you come down here Miss Scanlon, please understand we were only doing our jobs. We wanted to make sure that-"

"Please stop. You've said all you need to say and now that I've cleared this up I think it's time to get John and Richard home. My godfather is an attorney, I'm happy to call him down here to help with the process if you think that's best." Although not exactly a lie, my godfather was a fraternity brother of my father's who lived in Philadelphia. Getting him to Castle Rock on a moment's notice would prove tricky. I hoped these cops' hatred of Eyeball and Ace didn't outweigh how badly they felt for me.

Mitchell bristled. "We had apprehended them on a traffic stop for suspected drunk driving-"

I stood up and cut him off. "So will they need an attorney? Did they pass a sobriety test? Have their parents been informed that they're in custody? I'm pretty sure they're both minors, maybe I should get my godfather over here, just in case..."

Collins shook his head and Mitchell sighed. "I'll let the boys know they're free to go. As are you, Miss Scanlon. Our deepest sympathies again for your loss and our apologies for calling you out this late." I stepped toward the door and watched Mitchell and Collins walk down to the room where Eyeball and Ace were sitting. I walked slowly toward the door and saw Mitchell point at me and then point toward the door. I saw Ace smirk as he stood up. I stepped out the front door of the station and toward my car. I fumbled in my purse for a cigarette as I heard footsteps behind me. I spun around and saw Ace and Eyeball coming down the stairs.

Ace slowed as he approached me. He didn't say a word as he held up his lighter. I put the cigarette to my lips and caught his eye. He had a strange expression on his face, my best guess is that it was part confusion, part exhaustion and part relief that he was standing outside the station and no longer in an interrogation room.

"Hey, thanks for whatever you did in there. I'm really sorry they had to bother you, but they were saying all sorts of crazy shit and you were the only person who could prove them wrong and it was real cool of you to come down here when you're dealing with everything…" Eyeball cut the silence with his awkward rambling.

"I'm sorry you guys got picked up at all, it seemed like total bullshit to me. Those cops seem to really hate your guts." I took a long drag of my cigarette.

Ace shrugged. "If it weren't this they'd have pulled me over and tried to pinch me for something else. It's how it goes for me around here."

I looked around and realized Ace's car wasn't in the parking lot. "Speaking of getting pulled over, I'm guessing Officer Dingbat gave you a ride here and your car is somewhere on the side of the road?"

He nodded. "It fucking better be, if those assholes had me towed on top of all this I'll fucking kill them."

I took another drag of my cigarette and shivered in the cold. "Let me at least give you a ride back to wherever it is, or home if that's easier. It's my fault you guys got dragged into all this it's the least I can do." I beckoned toward my car.

Eyeball perked up. "I live real close to here, I'd love to snag a ride from you if you don't mind. If I don't get home soon I'll hear it from my old man. You can drop me there then swing back out to Central Street to drop Ace at his car." I noticed Ace wince as Eyeball eagerly jumped toward my car and climbed in the backseat. Ace didn't move.

"Are you coming? I really don't mind it's not a big deal." I stepped closer to him.

His eyes locked with mine. "It's not your fault."

His response surprised me. "What?"

"It's not your fault. None of it is. Not why we got picked up, not what happened yesterday. Don't go telling yourself that, it's pointless."

His words stung me. For the second time in 48 hours Ace Merrill came out of left field with brutally honest yet oddly comforting words. We stared at each other for a moment and I felt it grow more and more awkward as the silence lingered. "I'm not standing out here all night. Hop in, I wouldn't feel right about leaving you here to walk." I spun and walked toward the driver's side. I heard his footsteps behind me as I climbed into my car.

"This is a nice ride, is it a '61?" Eyeball asked as I backed out of the station.

I nodded. Ace scoffed. "Let me guess, a present on your sweet sixteen?"

I was thankful it was dark because I felt my cheeks flush and turn what I'm sure was a deep shade of red. "As a matter of fact it was, I'm sure that sounds like some real "Leave it to Beaver" shit to you."

Ace laughed. "After the last couple of days, Princess, I don't think Leave it to Beaver is how I'd describe your family." I saw Eyeball's jaw drop in the rearview mirror. My first instinct was to be offended, but I immediately recalled how comforted I had been by his honesty just a few minutes prior. Still, I didn't like the sneer in his voice when he called me "Princess" but I covered my annoyance with a small laugh.

"You're right, it's more Guiding Light or some other ridiculous soap opera." I tried to deflect as Eyeball directed me to turn right down a road I hadn't driven down before. I realized as I navigated the sparse streets of the east side of Castle Rock that I really did live in a different world than these two guys who I had been in school with my entire life.

"Take the next left and down to the end is me, the one with the busted up Ford Pickup out front. Don't pull up too close, if my old man passed out in his chair the headlights will wake him up." Eyeball pointed out his house as I slowed to a stop.

"Hey Rory, uhhh thanks again for the ride and for uhhh getting us out of that jam. Been a wild few days and I'm uhh real sorry about everything…" Eyeball stammered from the backseat.

"Give her one of the joints you've been holding, numbnuts, least you can do to say thank you." Ace spoke up next to me. Eyeball's eyes grew wide as did mine.

"Wait, you were holding joints while Mitchell and Collins had you in for questioning? Jesus you're lucky they didn't pinch you for that." I watched Eyeball fumble in his pocket and hold out a neatly wrapped joint to me. "I didn't take you for a pothead but if you're interested it's yours."

"I doubt she is, but I don't think a joint before bed would be the worst idea for her." Ace reached into his pocket and pulled out a cigarette. He held out his pack to me and I took one.

I took the joint from Eyeball's hand. "Thanks. I'm no stranger to these and I could definitely stand to mellow out after the last couple days. Thanks for everything that you did yesterday, and I'm sorry you got dragged into this again tonight. If anything fucked up like this ever happens again let me know and if there's anything I can do to help I will." Eyeball smiled and held out his hand to Ace, who skinned his palm. Eyeball hopped out of the car and jogged toward his house.

"Where's your car?" I turned to Ace, who was holding out his lighter for me to light my cigarette.

"Central Street, back closer to downtown."

I nodded and pulled out of Eyeball's street. "Thanks for the joint, by the way." I said to cut the silence.

"It was Eyeball's joint." He cracked open the window and blew a puff of cigarette smoke out into the cold.

"Well it was your idea to give it to me. I appreciate it."

He shrugged. "Doubt you'll actually smoke it, but you talked a decent game."

"I'd spark it right now if I weren't concerned one of those cops is waiting by your car to nab you again on your way home. Last thing you need is to smell like grass. I can wait until I get home." I hoped my retort was snappy enough to deflect how slightly insulted I was that Ace insinuated I was a poser trying to look cool with the joint. His silence told me nothing.

I approached the center of town and made the left onto Central Street. The silence was uncomfortable and I stifled a sigh of relief when I noticed a car pulled onto the shoulder up ahead. I pulled over behind it and put the car in park.

"So I guess we've arrived at the part of the evening where you thank me or apologize or some combination of the two all over again?" Ace tossed the butt of his cigarette out the window and rolled it up. His hand traveled down to the door handle. He looked straight ahead as I turned to face him, slightly annoyed that he was planning his exit before I got a chance to speak.

"I was going to give it a whirl but something tells me I should save my breath." I rolled my eyes.

"Listen Princess, as far as I'm concerned-" He began.

"You don't hear me calling you John, don't call me princess." I cut him off.

He leaned back in his seat and stared at me. "Thirty seconds ago you were about to dump your guts out to me and now you're snapping at me?"

"I wasn't about to dump my guts out to anyone, don't flatter yourself. I just wanted to apologize that you got your balls busted by those dick cops tonight, but it's clear you don't want to hear it so why don't you just get out of my car and have a pleasant night."

Ace sat there motionless, his eyes slowly looking me up and down.

I raised an eyebrow. "Do you need something else? If you're waiting for me to take my top off again forget it. It's way too cold out here for that shit tonight."

He laughed. "Princess has jokes, who would have thought. You're a tougher broad than I expected. That's good. Means you'll probably come out of this okay." The unsolicited advice stung at first, but figured this was the closest Ace Merrill got to throwing around compliments so part of me was almost flattered.

He gave me one last look and stepped out of my car and shut the door. My eyes followed him as he walked to his car. I could see his breath in the cold air. As he fumbled with his keys, he looked over at me one last time. I fought the instinct to look away and stared at him for a moment through the windshield. I felt my heart thump in my chest as he broke eye contact and slid into his car. The lights popped on and he banged a u-turn and disappeared.

I took a deep breath and started home. At this point, my mind was mush. It had been a long enough day without adding in a late night police interrogation. I yawned as I navigated the quiet streets of Castle Rock. My heart beat a little faster as I approached the gas station. I saw Ace's car pull into the house behind the garage and my eyes immediately went to my mother's smashed up car nearby. I pushed the images out of my mind as I took the turn up to the View.

I was disappointed to see the living room illuminated by the television as I pulled into the driveway. I had hoped my father had gone to bed and that I could just slide up into my room and spark the joint that Eyeball had given me, but no such luck. I made my way to the front door and my father popped up from the couch as I entered.

"Where were you?" A stern expression painted his face.

"I told you-"

He cut me off. "Before you lie to me, Nick called from his Grandparents' house looking for you about ten minutes after you left so I know you weren't there."

I took a deep breath as I tried to piece together an alibi. Explaining to my father where I had been would prompt him to reopen his quest for details about the prior day's events.

"I just had to clear my head, okay?"

"The phone rang and you bolted out of here...who were you with?"

"What does it matter? I'm home now and I'm fine." I wasn't going to bite. I didn't want to talk to him and I certainly didn't want to explain my little trip to the police station.

He shook his head. "Rory just because-"

"Just because I had to handle everything yesterday alone you think that you can swoop in and act like a devoted parent now? Save it. I'm going to bed maybe we'll talk tomorrow."

I brushed past my stunned father and stomped up the stairs. I successfully made it into my room without him following me. I collapsed on my bed and sighed. My mind started to wander, jumping from images of my father to my sisters to everything that had gone down the day before. Eventually my thoughts settled on Ace. If the situation were reversed and I had ended up dealing with his family's issues, the Castle Rock police department certainly wouldn't have followed me around demanding answers. The kid had been dealt a raw enough deal and the one time he tried to be nice it backfires and gets him hauled in for questioning.

I heard footsteps on the stairs and heard the guest room door open then close. I remembered that the cleaning crew wasn't coming until tomorrow and that my father couldn't sleep in his bedroom with everything as it was. It was a sobering reminder of what had happened. It had only been a little over 24 hours but it felt like I had lived a lifetime since my mother had died. Navigating this new normal was going to be tricky. As i felt all of those negative images enter my mind, I remembered that Eyeball's joint was still in my purse. I jumped off my bed and dug it out and stepped over to my window to spark it. I inhaled long and deep and remembered Ace telling me I'd need it. He wasn't wrong. He hadn't been wrong about much over the last day and a half. I thought about the smile that pulled at the side of his mouth when I joked about undressing in front of him again and I smiled myself. This random kid who I had maybe spoken to twice before had suddenly become this major character in my life. I wondered when our paths would cross again, something told me that we weren't done with each other by a longshot...


End file.
